JAMES    OTIS 


THE  PRE-REVOLUTIONIST 


A  BRIEF  INTERPRETATION   OF   THE  LIFE  AND  WORK   OF 

A   PATRIOT 


JOHN  CLARK  RIDPATH,  LLD. 

Author  of  a  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Universal  History,''  "  Great  Races  of  Mankind,''  "  Life  a.nd 
Times  of  William  E.  Gladstone,"  etc.,  etc. 


WITH   ANECDOTES,    CHARACTERISTICS   AND 
CHRONOLOGY 


CHICAGO 

THE  UNIVERSITY  ASSOCIATION 

Association  Building 


Copyright,  1898, 
By  THE  UNIVERSITY  ASSOCIATION. 


JAMBS  OTIS. 

(See  page  98.) 


NEAR  the  northeast  corner  of  the  old  Common  of 
Boston  a  section  of  ground  was  put  apart  long  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  be  a 
burying  ground  for  some  of  the  heroic  dead  of  the  city 
of  the  Puritans.  For  some  quaint  reason  or  caprice  this 
acre  of  God  \vascalled  "The  Granary" — and  is  so  called 
to  this  day.  Perhaps  the  name  was  given  because  the 
dead  were  here  garnered  as  grain  from  the  reaping  un- 
til the  bins  be  opened  at  the  last  day's  threshing  when 
the  chaff  shall  be  driven  from  the  wheat. 

Here  the  thoughtless  throng  looking  through  the  iron 
railing  may  see  the  old  weather-beaten  and  time-eaten 
slabs  with  their  curious  lettering  which  designate  the 
spots  where  many  of  the  men  of  the  pre- revolutionary 
epoch  were  laid  to  their  last  repose.  The  word  cemetery 
is  from  Greek  and  means  the  little  place  where  I  lie 
down. 

In  the  Granary  Burying  Ground  are  the  tombs  of 
many  whom  history  has  gathered  and  recorded  as  her 
own.  But  history  looks  in  vain  among  the  blue- black 
slabs  of  semi-slate  for  the  name  of  one  who  was  greatest 

D 


6  JAMES  OTIS. 

perhaps  of  them  all ;  but  whose  last  days  were  so  strange- 
ly clouded  and  whose  sepulchre  was  so  obscure  as  to 
leave  the  world  in  doubt  for  more  than  a  half  century 
as  to  where  the  body  of  the  great  sleeper  had  been  laid. 
Curiosity,  whetted  by  patriotism,  then  discovered  the 
spot.  But  the  name  of  another  was  on  the  covering 
slab,  and  no  small  token  was  to  be  found  indicative  of 
the  last  resting  place  of  the  lightning-smitten  body  of 
James  Otis,  the  prophetic  giant  of  the  pre-revolutionary 
days.  He  who  had  lived  like  one  of  the  Homeric  he- 
roes, who  had  died  like  a  Titan  under  a  thunderbolt, 
and  had  been  buried  as  obscurely  as  Richard  the  Lion 
Hearted,  or  Frederick  Barbarossa,  must  lie  neglected  in 
an  unknown  tomb  within  a  few  rods  of  the  spot  where 
his  eloquence  aforetime  had  aroused  his  countrymen  to 
national  consciousness,  and  made  a  foreign  tyranny  for- 
ever impossible  in  that  old  Boston,  the  very  name  of 
which  became  henceforth  the  menace  of  kings  and 
the  synonym  of  liberty. 

Tradition  rather  than  history  has  preserved  thus 
much.  In  the  early  part  of  the  present  century  a  row 
of  great  elms,  known  as  the  Paddock  elms,  stood  in 
what  is  now  the  sidewalk  on  the  west  side  of  Tremont 
Street  skirting  the  Granary  Burying  Ground.  These 
trees  were  cut  away  and  the  first  section  of  the  burial 
space  was  invaded  with  the  spade.  Tomb  No.  40,  over 
which  the  iron  railing  now  passes,  was  divided  down  as 
far  as  where  the  occupants  are  lying.  Within  the  sepul- 
chre were  several  bodies.  One  was  the  body  of  Nathan- 
iel Cunningham,  Sr.  Another  was  Ruth  Cunningham, 


Old  Granary  Burying  Ground,  Boston. 


8  JAMES  OTIS. 

his  wife.  The  younger  members  of  the  family  were 
also  there  in  death. 

When  the  lid  of  one  coffin  in  this  invaded  tomb  was 
lifted,  it  was  found  that  a"  mass  of  the  living  roots  of  the 
old  strong  elm  near  by,  had  twined  about  the  skull  of 
the  sleeper,  had  entered  through  the  apertures,  and  had 
eaten  up  the  brain.  It  was  the  brain  of  James  Otis 
which  had  given  itself  to  the  life  of  the  elm  and  had 
been  transformed  into  branch  and  leaf  and  blossom,  thus 
breathing  itself  forth  again  into  the  free  air  and  the 
Universal  Flow. 

The  body  of  the  patriot  had  been  deposited  in  this 
tomb  of  his  father-in-law,  the  Nathaniel  Cunningham 
just  referred  to,  and  had  there  reposed  until  the  search- 
ing fibres  of  another  order  of  life  had  found  it  out,  and 
lifted  and  dispensed  its  sublimer  part  into  the  viewless 
air.  Over  the  grave  in  which  the  body  was  laid  is  still 
one  of  the  rude  slabs  which  the  fathers  provided,  and  on 
this  is  cut  the  name  of  "George  Longley,  1809,"  he  be- 
ing the  successor  of  the  Cunninghams  in  the  ownership 
of  Tomb  No.  40. 

Here,  then,  was  witnessed  the  last  transformation  of 
the  material,  visible  man  called  James  Otis,  the  courage- 
ous herald  who  ran  swinging  a  torch  in  the  early  dawn 
of  the  American  Revolution. 

The  pre-revolutionists  are  the  Titans  of  human  his- 
tory; the  revolutionists  proper  are  only  heroes;  and  the 
post-revolutionists  are  too  frequently  dwarfs  and  weak- 
lings. This  signifies  that  civilization  advances  by  revo- 
lutionary stages,  and  that  history  sends  out  her  tallest 


JAMES  OTIS.  9 

and  best  sons  to  explore  the  line  of  march,  and  to  select 
the  spot  for  the  next  camping-ground.  It  is  not  they 
who  actually  command  the  oncoming  columns  and  who 
seem  so  huge  against  the  historical  background — it  is 
not  these,  but  rather  the  hoarse  forerunners  and  shaggy 
prophets  of  progress  who  are  the  real  kings  of  men — the 
true  princes  of  the  human  empire. 

These  principles  of  the  civilized  life  were  strongly  il- 
lustrated in  our  War  of  Independence.  The  forerunners 
of  that  war  were  a  race  of  giants.  Their  like  has  hardly 
been  seen  in  any  other  epoch  of  that  sublime  scrimmage 
called  history.  Five  or  six  names  may  be  selected  from 
the  list  of  the  early  American  prophets  whose  deeds  and 
outcry,  if  reduced  to  hexameters,  would  be  not  the  Iliad, 
not  the  Jerusalem  Delivered,  but  the  Epic  of  Human 
Liberty. 

The  greatest  of  these,  our  protagonists  of  freedom, 
was  Benjamin  Franklin.  After  him  it  were  difficult  to 
name  the  second.  It  is  always  difficult  to  find  the  sec- 
ond man;  for  there  are  several  who  come  after.  In  the 
case  of  our  forerunners  the  second  may  have  been  Thom- 
as Jefferson;  it  may  have  been  Samuel  Adams;  it  may 
have  been  his  cousin;  it  may  have  been  Thomas  Paine; 
it  may  have  been  Patrick  Henry;  it  may  have  been 
James  Otis,  the  subject  of  this  monograph. 

It  is  remarkable  to  note  how  elusive  are  the  lives  of 
many  great  men.  Some  of  the  greatest  have  hardly  been 
known  at  all.  Others  are  known  only  by  glimpses  and 
outlines.  Some  are  known  chiefly  by  myth  and  tradi- 
tion. Nor  does  the  effort  to  discover  the  details  of  such 


io  JAMES  OTIS. 

lives  yield  any  considerable  results.  There  are  great 
names  which  have  come  to  us  from  antiquity,  or  out  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  that  are  known  only  as  names,  or  only 
by  a  few  striking  incidents.  In  some  cases  our  actual 
knowledge  of  men  who  are  believed  to  have  taken  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  drama  of  their  times  is  so  meagre 
and  uncertain  that  critical  disputes  have  arisen  respect- 
ing the  very  existence  of  such  personages. 

Homer  for  example — was  he  myth  or  man?  The 
Christ?  Where  was  he  and  how  did  he  pass  his  life  from 
his  twelfth  year  to  the  beginning  of  his  ministry?  What 
were  the  dates  of  his  birth  and  death?  Shakespeare? 
Why  should  not  the  details  of  his  life,  or  some  consider- 
erable  portion  of  the  facts,  compare  in  plenitude  and 
authenticity  with  the  events  in  Dr.  Johnson's  career? 

It  seems  to  be  the  law  of  biography  that  those  charac- 
ters who  are  known  to  the  world  by  a  few  brilliant 
strokes  of  genius  have  as  a  rule  only  a  meagre  personal 
history,  while  they  whose  characters  have  been  built  up 
painfully  and  slowly  out  of  the  commonplace,  like  the 
coral  islands  of  the  Atlantic,  have  a  great  variety  and 
multitude  of  materials  ready  for  the  hands  of  the  biog- 
rapher. 

James  Otis  belonged  to  the  first  of  these  classes. 
There  is  a  measure  of  elusiveness  about  his  life.  Our 
lack  of  knowledge  respecting  him,  however,  is  due  in 
part  to  the  fact  that  near  the  close  of  his  life,  while  he 
was  oscillating  in  a  half-rational  condition  between  An- 
dover  and  Boston,  with  an  occasional  visit  to  Plymouth, 
he  fell  into  a  fit  of  pessimism  and  despair  during  which 


JAMES  OTIS.  ii 

he  spent  two  days  in  obliterating  the  materials  for  his 
biography,  by  destroying  all  his  letters  and  manuscripts. 
He  did  as  much  as  he  could  to  make  impossible  any  ad- 
equate account  of  his  career  or  any  suitable  revelation  of 
his  character  as  developed  in  his  correspondence.  Over 
and  above  this,  however,  the  materials  of  his  life  are  of 
small  extent,  and  fragmentary.  It  is  to  his  formal  pub- 
lications and  the  common  tradition  of  what  he  did,  that 
we  must  turn  for  our  biographical  and  historical  estimate 
of  the  man.  In  this  respect  he  is  in  analogy  with  Pat- 
rick Henry  who  appears  only  fitfully  in  history,but  with 
meteoric  brilliancy;  or  with  Abraham  Lincoln  the  nar- 
rative of  whose  life  for  the  first  forty-five  years  can  be 
adequately  written  in  ten  pages. 

The  American  Otises  of  the  seventeenth  century 
were  of  English  descent.  The  emigration  of  the  family 
from  the  mother  country  occurred  at  an  early  day  when 
the  settlements  in  New  England  were  still  infrequent 
and  weak.  The  Otis  family  was  among  the  first  to  set- 
tle at  the  town  of  Hingham.  Nor  was  it  long  until  the 
name  appeared  in  the  public  records,  indicating  official 
rank  and  leadership.  From  Hingham,  John  Otis,  who  was 
born  in  1657,  ancestor  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  re- 
moved to  Barnstable,  near  the  center  of  the  peninsula 
of  Massachusetts,  and  became  one  of  the  first  men  of  that 
settlement.  He  was  sent  to  the  Legislature  and  thence 
to  the  Council  of  the  Colony  in  which  he  had  a  seat  for 
twenty-one  years.  During  this  period  he  was  promoted 
to  the  place  of  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  and 
while  holding  this  important  place  he  was  also  judge  of 


12  JAMES  OTIS. 

the  Probate  Court.  The  family  flourished  and  rose  in 
reputation. 

In  1702,  James  Otis,  son  of  Judge  John  Otis,  was  born. 
He  followed  in  his  father's  footsteps  becoming  a  lawyer 
and  colonial  publicist,  afterwards  a  colonel  of  the  militia, 
a  judge  of  the  Common  Pleas,  a  judge  of  the  Probate 
Court,  and  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Massachusetts. 
Just  after  reaching  his  majority  Colonel  Otis  took  in 
marriage  Mary  Alleyne,  and  of  this  union  were  born  thir- 
teen children.  The  eldest  was  a  son,  and  to  him  was 
given  his  father's  name.  It  was  to  this  child  that  desti- 
ny had  assigned  the  heroic  work  of  confronting  the  ag- 
gressions of  Great  Britain  on  the  American  colonists,  and 
of  inspiring  the  latter  to  forcible  resistance. 

JAMES  OTIS,  JUNIOR,  was  born  at  a  place  called  Great 
Marshes,  now  known  as  West  Barnstable,  on  the  5th  of 
February,  1725.  He  inherited  from  his  father  and 
grandfather  not  only  a  large  measure  of  talents  but  also 
a  passion  for  public  life  which  impelled  him  strongly  to 
the  study  and  solution  of  those  questions  which  related 
to  the  welfare  of  the  American  colonies,  and  to  the 
means  by  which  their  political  independence  might  be 
ultimately  secured. 

The  character  and  intellect  of  Colonel  Otis  of  Barn- 
stable  were  transmitted  to  other  members  of  his  family 
also.  The  daughter  Mercy,  oldest  sister  of  James  Otis, 
was  married  to  James  Warren  who  made  his  home  at 
Plymouth.  This  lady  had  her  brother's  passion  for  pol- 
itics— an  enthusiasm  which  could  hardly  be  restrained. 
She  wrote  and  conversed  in  a  fiery  manner  on  the  revo- 


Col.  James  Otis,  of  Barnstable. 

Father  of  James  Otis,  the  Pre- Revolutionist.    From  a  photograph  of  the 
original  painting  in  the  hull  of  the  Old  State  House,  Boston. 


I4  JAMES  OTIS. 

lutionary  topics  of  the  day.  Almost  coincidently  with 
the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  she  composed  and  published 
(without  her  name,  however,)  a  biting  satire  on  the  col- 
onial policy  of  Great  Britain,  calling  her  brochure  "The 
Group."  Fifteen  years  afterwards  she  published  a  vol- 
ume of  poems,  mostly  patriotic  pieces,  and  finally  in 
1805  a  brief  "History  of  the  American  Revolution," 
which  was  considered  a  reputable  work  after  its  kind. 

Samuel  Alleyne  Otis,  youngest  brother  of  James,  out- 
lived nearly  all  the  other  members  of  the  family,  and 
was  recognized  as  a  prominent  political  leader.  He, 
also,  had  the  strong  patriotic  and  revolutionary  bent  of 
'the  family,  was  popular  and  influential,  and  was  honored 
with  a  long  term  of  service  as  Secretary  of  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States.  In  this  capacity  he  participated, 
April  30,  1789,  in  the  inauguration  of  Washington, 
holding  the  Bible  on  which  the  Father  of  his  Country 
took  the  oath  of  office.  The  other  brothers  and  sisters 
were  of  less  conspicuous  ability,  and  were  not  so  well 
known  to  their  own  and  other  times. 

In  New  England  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  sentiment  of  education  was  universal. 
Among  the  leading  people,  the  sentiment  was  intense. 
Colonel  Otis,  of  Barnstable,  was  alert  with  respect  to  the 
discipline  and  development  of  his  children.  He  gave  to 
them  all,  to  the  sons  especially,  the  best  advantages 
which  the  commonwealth  afforded.  James  Otis  was  as- 
signed to  the  care  of  Reverend  Jonathan  Russell,  the 
minister  at  Barnstable,  who  prepared  the  youth  for  col- 
lege. By  the  middle  of  his  fifteenth  year  he  was  thought 


St.  Clair. 
Livingston.  Knox.    Sherman.  Steuben. 

Otis.  Washington.  Adams. 

Inauguration  of  Washington. 
(Samuel  Alleyne  Otis  holding  the  Bible.) 


16  JAMES  OTIS. 

to  be  ready  for  matriculation.  He  was  accordingly1  en- 
tered as  a  freshman  at  Harvard,  in  June,  1739. 

Of  the  incidents  of  his  preceding  boyhood,  we  know 
but  little.  A  tradition  exists  that  he  was  more  preco- 
cious than  diligent;  that  his  will  was  strong;  that  his 
activities  were  marked  with  a  reckless  audacity,  which, 
however,  did  not  distinguish  him  much  from  the  other 
promising  New  England  boys  of  his  age.  Something  of 
these  characteristics  are  noticeable  in  his  college  career. 
At  Harvard  he  showed  an  abundance  of  youthful  spirits, 
a  strong  social  disposition,  and  a  well-marked  discrimi- 
nation between  his  friends  and  his  enemies.  At  times  he 
applied  himself  assiduously,  and  at  other  times  mused 
and  read  rather  than  studied.  On  the  whole  he  did  not 
greatly  distinguish  himself  as  a  student.  His  passion 
for  literature  was  marked,  and  he  became  conspicuous 
for  his  forensic  abilities.  Towards  the  end  of  his  course, 
his  character  as  a  student  was  intensified,  and  he  was 
not  often  seen  away  from  his  books.  Out  of  term  time, 
he  would  return  to  his  father's  home  taking  his  books 
with  him.  At  such  times  he  was  rarely  seen  by  his 
former  companions  of  Barnstable,  because  of  his  habit 
of  secluding  himself  for  study. 

It  is  narrated  that  at  this  period  of  his  life,  young  Otis 
gave  strong  evidence  of  the  excitable  temperament  with 
which  he  was  endowed.  In  the  intervals  of  his  study, 
his  nervous  system,  under  the  stimulus  of  games  or  con- 
troversial dispute,  would  become  so  tense  with  excite- 
ment as  to  provoke  remark.  Nor  may  we  in  the  retro- 
spect fail  to  discover  in  this  quality  of  mind  and  temper 


JAMES  OTIS.  17 

the  premonitions  of  that  malady  which  finally  prevailed 
over  the  lucid  understanding,  and  rational  activities  of 
James  Otis. 

The  youth  did  not  much  effect  social  accomplish- 
ments. He  had  a  passion  for  music  and  learned  to  play 
the  violin.  With  this  instrument  he  was  wont  to  enter- 
tain himself  in  the  intervals  of  study.  Sometimes  he 
would  play  for  company.  It  was  one  of  his  habits  to 
break  off  suddenly  and  rather  capriciously  in  the  midst 
of  what  he  was  doing.  Thus  did  he  with  his  music. 
It  is  narrated  that  on  a  certain  occasion  while  playing 
by  invitation  for  some  friends,  he  suddenly  put  aside 
the  instrument,  saying  in  a  sort  of  declamatory  manner 
as  was  his  wont— 

"So  fiddled  Orpheus  and  so  danced  the  brutes." 

He  then  ran  into  the  garden,  and  could  not  be  induced 
to  play  the  violin  again. 

Young  Otis  passed  through  the  regular  classes  at 
Harvard  and  was  graduated  in  1 743.  On  that  occasion 
he  took  part  in  a  disputation  which  was  one  of  the  exer- 
cises of  his  class.  Otherwise  his  record  at  the  college  is 
not  accented  with  any  special  work  which  he  did.  At 
the  time  of  his  graduation  he  was  in  his  nineteenth 
year.  It  had  been  his  father's  purpose  and  his  own 
that  his  profession  should  be  the  law.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear, however,  that  his  college  studies  were  especially 
directed  to  this  end.  At  any  rate,  he  did  not  devote  him- 
self at  once  to  the  law,  but  assiduously  for  two  years 
(1743-45)  to  a  general  course  of  study  chosen  and  direc- 
ted by  himself,  with  a  view  to  the  further  discipline  of 


i8  JAMES  OTIS. 

his  mind  and  the  widening  of  his  information.  It 
was  an  educational  theory  with  Otis  that  such  an 
interval  of  personal  and  spontaneous  application  should 
intervene  between  a  young  man's  graduation  and  the 
beginning  of  his  professional  career.  Having  pursued 


Samuel  Alleyne  Otis. 

this  course  with  himself  he  insisted  that  his  younger 
brother,  Samuel  Alleyne  Otis,  should  take  the  same  course. 
In  one  of  his  letters  to  his  father — a  communication  fort- 
unately rescued  from  the  holocaust  of  his  correspondence 
—  lie  discusses  the  question  and  urges  the  propriety  of 


JAMES  OTIS.  19 

the  young  man's  devoting  a  year  or  two  to  general  study 
before  taking  up  his  law  books.  An  extract  from  the 
letter  will  prove  of  interest.  The  writer  says: 

"It  is  with  sincerest  pleasure  I  find  my  brother  Sam- 
uel has  well  employed  his  time  during  his  residence  at 
home.  I  am  sure  you  don't  think  the  time  long  he  is 
spending  in  his  present  course  of  studies;  since  it  is  past 
all  doubt  they  are  not  only  ornamental  and  useful,  but 
indispensably  necessary  preparatories  for  the  figure  I 
hope  one  day,  for  his  and  your  sake,  as  well  as  my  own, 
to  see  him  make  in  the  profession  he  is  determined  to 
pursue.  I  am  sure  the  year  and  a  half  I  spent  in  the 
same  way,  after  leaving  the  academy,  was  as  well  spent 
as  any  part  of  my  life;  and  I  shall  always  lament  I  did 
not  take  a  year  or  two  further  for  more  general  inquiries 
in  the  arts  and  sciences,  before  I  sat  down  to  the  labori- 
ous study  of  the  laws  of  my  country. 

"My  brother's  judgment  can't  at  present  be  supposed 
to  be  ripe  enough  for  so  severe  an  exercise  as  the  proper 
reading  and  well  digesting  the  common  law.  Very  sure 
I  am,  if  he  would  stay  a  year  or  two  from  the  time  of  his 
degree,  before  he  begins  with  the  law,  he  will  be  able  to 
make  better  progress  in  one  week,  than  he  could  now, 
without  a  miracle,  in  six.  Early  and  short  clerkships,and 
a  premature  rushing  into  practice,  without  a  competent 
knowledge  in  the  theory  of  law,  have  blasted  the  hopes, 
and  ruined  the  expectations,  formed  by  the  parents  of 
most  of  the  students  in  the  profession,  who  have  fallen 
within  my  observation  for  these  ten  or  fifteen  years  past." 

The  writer  of  this  well-timed  communication  then  adds 


20  JAMES  OTIS. 

in  proof  of  his  position,the  names  of  several  distinguished 
jurists  who  postponed  the  beginning  of  their  legal  studies, 
or  at  least  their  legal  practice,  to  a  time  of  life  quite  be- 
yond the  conventional  student  period.  Mr.  Otis  then 
declares  his  conviction  that  a  young  man  may  well  pro- 
crastinate his  legal  studies  until  he  shall  have  attained 
the  age  of  thirty  or  even  of  forty  years.  He  declares  his 
belief  that  such  postponement  will  as  a  rule  lead  to  bet- 
ter results  than  can  be  attained  by  a  youth  who  be- 
gins at  twenty,  however  brilliant  his  genius  may  be. 

This  view  of  the  case  was  with  James  Otis  both  theory 
and  practice.  He  began  his  legal  studies  in  1745.  In  that 
year  he  became  a  law  student  under  the  tuition  of  Jere- 
miah Gridley  who  at  that  time  was  already  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  able  and  accomplished  lawyers  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Preceptor  and  student  were  at  the  first  in  ac- 
cord in  their  political  and  social  principles.  At  the 
time  of  the  young  man's  law  course,  Gridley  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts.  He  belonged 
to  the  party  called  Whig;  for  the  political  jargon  of 
Great  Britain  had  infected  the  Americans  also,  and  they 
divided  according  to  the  names  and  principles  of  the 
British  partisans  of  the  period. 

Judge  Gridley,  while  he  remained  on  the  bench, 
took  sides  with  the  colonists  in  their  oncoming  conten- 
tion with  the  mother  country.  Afterwards,  however,  by 
accepting  the  appointment  of  Attorney  General  he  be- 
came one  of  the  king's  officers,  and  it  was  in  this 
relation  that  he  was  subsequently  brought  face  to  face 
with  his  distinguished  pupil  in  the  trial  of  the  most 


JAMES  OTIS.  21 

remarkable  case  which  preceded  the  Revolution. 

Mr.  Otis  devoted  two  years  of  time  to  his  legal  studies 
before  beginning  the  practice  of  his  profession.  The  study 
of  law  at  that  time  was  much  more  difficult  than  at  the  pres- 
ent day.  The  student  was  obliged  to  begin  de  novo  with 
the  old  statutes  and  decisions,  and  to  make  up  the  science 
for  himself  by  a  difficult  induction,  which  not  many  young 
men  were  able  to  do  successfully.  Law  text-books  were 
virtually  unknown.  Otis  did  not  even  have  access  to 
"Blackstone's  Commentaries."  No  authoritative  works  on 
evidence  or  pleading  existed  in  the  English  language. 

The  student  must  get  down  his  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, his  decisions  of  the  King's  Bench,  his  Coke, 
his  black-letter  dissertations  on  the  common  law,  and 
out  of  these  construct  the  best  he  could  a  legal 
system  for  himself.  To  this  work  Mr.  Otis  devoted 
himself  from  1745  to  1747,  after  which  he  left  the  office 
of  Judge  Gridley  and  went  to  Plymouth,  where  he  ap- 
plied for  admission  to  the  bar,  and  was  accepted  by  the 
court.  He  began  to  practice  in  1748 — the  year  of  the 
treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  when  the  political  and  histori- 
cal status  of  Europe  was  again  fixed  for  a  brief  period. 

The  young  attorney  almost  immediately  took  rank  at 
the  Plymouth  bar.  The  old  records  of  the  court  at  that 
place  still  show  the  frequent  appearance  of  Otis  for  one 
or  the  other  of  the  parties.  In  this  manner  were  passed 
the  years  1748  and  1749.  It  does  not  appear  that  at 
this  time  he  concerned  himself  very  much  with  the  af- 
fairs of  the  town  or  the  larger  affairs  of  the  common- 
wealth. The  tax  records  show  his  name  with  an  entry 


22  JAMES  OTIS. 

to  the  effect  that  in  1748  he  estimated  his  personal  es- 
tate at  twenty  pounds  besides  his  "faculty,"  by  which 
was  meant,  his  professional  value. 

A  few  incidents  of  this  period  in  Otis's  life  have  come 
down  by  tradition.  He  soon  made  a  favorable  impres- 
sion on  the  court  and  bar.  He  gained  the  good  opinion 
of  his  fellows  for  both  ability  and  integrity  of  character. 
This  reputation  he  carried  with  him  to  Boston,  whither 
he  removed  early  in  the  year  1750.  He  had  already  ac- 
quired sufficient  character  to  bring  his  services  into 
requisition  at  places  somewhat  distant  from  Plymouth. 

His  reception  in  Boston  was  accordingly  favorable. 
Beyond  the  limits  of  the  colony  he  became  known  as  an 
advocate.  He  was  sent  for  in  important  cases,  and 
showed  such  signal  ability  as  to  attract  the  admiring  at- 
tention of  both  court  and  people.  Already  at  the  con- 
clusion of  his  twenty-fifth  year  he  was  a  young  man  of 
note,  rising  to  eminence. 

There  was  good  ground  for  this  reputation  in  both  his 
principles  of  conduct  and  his  legal  abilities.  From  the 
first  he  avoided  the  littleness  and  quibble  which  are  the 
bane  of  the  bar.  He  had  a  high  notion  of  what  a  law- 
yer should  be  and  of  the  method  and  spirit  in  which  he 
should  conduct  his  cases.  He  had  as  much  dignity  as 
audacity,  a  sense  of  justice  as  keen  as  the  purpose  was 
zealous  in  pursuing  it. 

It  came  to  be  understood  in  the  courts  of  Boston  when 
Otis  appeared  as  an  advocate  that  he  had  a  case  and 
believed  in  it.  He  avoided  accepting  retainers  in  cases, 
of  the  justice  of  which  he  was  in  doubt.  Pursuing  this 


Inscription  on  the  Fly  Leaf  of  a  Copy  of  "A  New  Dictionary  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,"  (Vol.  Ill,)  London,  1764. 

The  upper  two  lines  are  in  the  handwriting  of  James  Otis.  The  author 
is  indebted  for  the  use  of  the  volume  to  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  Esq.,  of  Win- 
throp,  Massachusetts,  whose  name  appears  at  the  bottom  of  the  page. 


24  JAMES  OTIS. 

method,  he  was  sometimes  involved  in  law-suits  in 
which  he  was  constrained  to  turn  upon  his  own  client. 

The  story  goes  of  one  such  instance  in  which  he  brought 
suit  for  the  collection  of  a  bill.  Believing  in  his  client 
and  in  the  justice  of  the  claim,  he  pressed  the  matter  in 
court  and  was  about  to  obtain  a  judgment  when  he  acci- 
dentally discovered,  among  his  client's  papers,  a  receipt 
which  the  plaintiff  had  signed  for  the  very  claim  under 
consideration.  Through  some  mistake  the  receipt  had 
again  got  back  into  the  man's  possession,  and  he  had 
taken  advantage  of  the  fact  to  institute  a  suit  for  the 
collection  of  the  claim  a  second  time. 

Seeing  through  the  matter  at  once,  Otis  took  the 
plaintiff  aside,  confronted  him  with  the  receipt  and  de- 
nounced him  to  his  face  as  a  rascal.  The  man  gave 
down  and  begged  for  quarter,  but  Otis  was  inexorable; 
he  went  back  to  the  bar  and  stated  to  the  court  that 
reasons  existed  why  the  case  of  his  client  should  be  dis- 
missed. The  court,  presided  over  by  Judge  Hutchin- 
.  son,  afterward  Lieutenant-Go vernor  and  Chief  Justice  of 
Massachusetts,  expressed  its  surprise  at  the  turn  of  af- 
fairs, complimented  Otis  for  his  honorable  course  as 
an  advocate,  commended  his  conduct  to  the  bar,  and 
dismissed  the  case. 

With  the  spread  of  his  reputation  Mr.  Otis  was  sum- 
moned on  legal  business  to  distant  parts.  On  one  occas- 
ion he  was  called  to  Halifax  to  defend  some  prisoners 
under  arrest  for  piracy;  believing  them  to  be  innocent 
he  convinced  the  court  in  an  eloquent  plea  and  secured 
the  acquittal  of  the  prisoners. 


JAMES  OTIS.  25 

On  another  occasion  he  was  summoned  to  Plymouth 
to  defend  some  citizens  of  that  town  who  had  become 
involved  in  a  riot  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Gunpowder 
Plot.  It  was  the  custom  in  the  New  England  towns  to 
observe  this  day  with  a  mock  procession,  in  which 
effigies  representing  the  Pope,  the  Old  Bad  One,  and 
James  the  Pretender,  were  carried  through  the  streets  to 
be  consigned  at  the  end  to  a  bonfire.  In  this  instance 
violence  was  done  by  some  of  the  participants;  windows 
were  smashed,  gates  were  broken  down,  etc.  Mr.  Otis 
conducted  the  defense,  showing  that  the  arrested  per- 
sons taking  part  in  a  noisy  anniversary,  and  committing 
acts  that  were  innocent  in  spirit,  if  not  innocent  per  se, 
ought  not  to  be  adjudged  guilty  of  serious  misdemeanor. 
This  plea  prevailed  and  the  young  men  were  acquitted. 

It  is  to  be  greatly  regretted  that  the  legal  pleas  and 
addresses  of  James  Otis  have  not  been  preserved.  A 
volume  of  his  speeches  would  reveal  not  only  his  style 
and  character,  but  also  much  of  the  history  of  the  times. 
The  materials,  however,  are  wanting.  He  kept  a  com- 
monplace book  in  which  most  of  his  business  letters  of 
the  period  under  consideration  were  recorded.  But 
these  give  hardly  a  glimpse  at  the  man,  the  orator,  or 
his  work.  Tradition,  however,  is  rife  with  the  myth  of 
his  method  and  manner.  He  was  essentially  an  orator. 
He  had  the  orator's  fire  and  passion;  also  the  orator's 
eccentricities — his  sudden  high  flights  and  transitions, 
his  quick  appeals  and  succession  of  images. 

To  these  qualities  of  the  orator  in  general  Otis  added 
the  power  of  applying  himself  to  the  facts;  also  the 


26  JAMES  OTIS. 

power  of  cogent  reasoning  and  masterful  search  for  the 
truth  which  gained  for  him  at  length  the  fame  of  first 
orator  of  the  revolution.-  The  passion  and  vehemence 
of  the  man  made  him  at  times  censorious  and  satirical. 
His  manner  towards  his  opponents  was  at  times  hard  to 
bear.  His  wit  was  of  that  sarcastic  kind  which,  like  a 
hot  wind,  withers  its  object 

All  of  these  dispositions  seemed  to  increase  his  power 
and  to  augment  his  reputation,  but  they  did  not  aug- 
ment his  happiness.  His  character  as  an  advocate  and 
as  a  man  came  out  in  full  force  during  the  first  period 
of  his  Boston  practice;  that  is,  in  the  interval  from 
1750  to  1755. 

On  attaining  his  thirtieth  year  Mr.  Otis  came  to  the 
event  of  his  marriage.  He  took  in  union,  in  the  spr-ing 
of  1755,  Ruth  Cunningham,  daughter  of  a  Boston  mer- 
chant. From  one  point  of  view  his  choice  was  oppor- 
tune, for  it  added  to  his  social  standing  and  also  to  his 
means.  From  another  aspect,  however,  the  marriage 
was  less  fortunate. 

The  Cunningham  family  was  not  well  grounded  in 
the  principles  of  patriotism.  The  timid  commercial  spir- 
it showed  itself  in  the  father,  and  with  this  the  daughter 
sympathized.  The  sharp  line  of  division  between  patri- 
otism and  loyalty  had  not  yet  been  drawn — as  it  was 
drawn  five  years  afterward.  But  it  began  to  be  drawn 
very  soon  after  the  marriage  with  serious  consequences 
to  the  domestic  peace  of  the  family. 

It  appears  that  beside  this  general  cause  of  divergence, 
the  staid  and  unenthusiastic  character  of  Mrs.  Otis  rather 


JAMES  OTIS.  27 

chilled  th*e  ardor  of  the  husband,  and  he,  for  his  part, 
by  his  vehemence  and  eccentricity,  did  not  strongly  con- 
ciliate her  favor.  There  were  times  of  active  disagree- 
ment in  the  family,  and  in  later  years  the  marriage  was 
rather  a  fact  than  a  principle. 


Mary  Alleyne  Otis,  Mother  of  James  Otis,  Jr. 

The  result  of  Mr.  Otis's  marriage  was  a  family  of  one 
son  and  two  daughters.  The  son,  who  was  given  his 
father's  name,  showed  his  father's  characteristics  from 
childhood,  and  certainly  a  measure  of  his  genius.  The 
lad,  however,  entered  the  navy  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution,  became  a  midshipman,  and  died  in  his 


28  JAMES  OTIS. 

eighteenth  year.  The  oldest  daughter,  Elizabeth,  went 
wholly  against  her  father's  grain  and  purpose.  Just  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  but  after  the  case 
had  been  clearly  made  up,  she  was  married  to  a  certain 
Captain  Brown,  at  that  time  a  British  officer  in  Boston, 
cordially  disliked,  if  not  hated,  by  James  Otis.  Person- 
ally, Brown  was  respectable,  but  his  cause  was  odious. 
He  was  seriously  wounded  in  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 
Afterwards  he  was  promoted  and  was  given  a  command 
in  England.  Thither  his  wife  went  with  him,  and  Mr. 
Otis  discarded  them  both,  if  not  with  anathema  at  least 
with  contempt. 

It  would  appear  that  his  natural  affection  was  blotted 
out.  At  least  his  resentment  was  life-long,  and  when 
he  came  to  make  his  will  he  described  the  circum- 
stances and  disinherited  Elizabeth  with  a  shilling. 
The  fact  that  Mrs.  Otis  favored  the  unfortunate  mar- 
riage, and  perhaps  brought  it  about — availing  her- 
self as  it  is  said,  of  one  of  Mr.  Otis' s  spells  of  mental 
aberration  to  carry  out  her  purposes — aggravated  the  diffi- 
culty.and  made  her  husband's  exasperation  everlasting. 

The  younger  daughter  of  the  family  shared  her  fath- 
er's patriotism.  She  was  married  to  Benjamin  Lincoln, 
Jr. ,  a  young  lawyer  of  Boston,  whose  father  was  General 
Benjamin  Lincoln  of  revolutionary  fame.  The  marriage 
was  a  happy  one,  but  ultimately  clouded  with  honorable 
grief.  Two  promising  sons  were  born,  but  each  died 
before  reaching  his  majority.  The  father  also  died  when 
he  was  twenty-eight  years  old.  The  wife  and  mother 
resided  in  Cambridge,  and  died  there  in  1806. 


JAMES  OTIS.  29 

The  second  period  in  James  Otis' s  life  may  be  regard- 
ed as  extending  from  1755  to  1760;  that  is,  from  his 
thirtieth  to  his  thirty-fifth  year.  It  was  in  this  period 
that  he  rose  to  eminence.  Already  distinguished  as  a 
lawyer,  he  now  became  more  distinguished  as  a  civilian 
and  a  man  of  public  affairs. 

He  caught  the  rising  interest  as  at  the  springing  of  the 
tide,  and  rose  with  it  until  it  broke  in  lines  of  foam 
along  the  shores  of  New  England.  He  gained  the  con- 
fidence of  the  patriot  party,  of  which  he  was  the  natural 
leader.  His  influence  became  predominant.  He  was  the 
peen.of  the  two  Adamses,  and  touched  hands  right  and 
left  with  the  foremost  men  of  all  the  colonies. 

It  surprises  us  to  note  that  at  this  time  James  Otis  de- 
voted a  considerable  section  of  his  time  to  scholastic  and 
literary  pursuits.  He  was  a  student  not  only  of  men  and 
affairs  but  of  books.  Now  it  was  that  the  influence  of 
his  Harvard  education  was  seen  in  both  his  studies  and 
his  works.  We  are  surprised  to  find  him  engaged  in  the 
composition  of  .a  text-bopk  which  is,  still  extant,  and, 
however  obsolete,  by  no  means  devoid  of  mejit  The 
work  was  clearly  a  result  left  on  his  niincl  from  his  stu- 
dent days. 

He  composed  and,  in  the  year  1760,  published,  by 
the  house  of  B.  Mecom  in  Boston,  a  72  page  brochure 
entitled  "The  Rudiments  of  Latin  Prosody  with  a 
Dissertation  on  Letters  and  the  Principles  of  Harmony 
in  Poetic  and  Prosaic  Composition,  collected  from  some 
of  the  best  Writers." 

The  work  is  primarily  a   text   in  Latin  Prosody  in 


3d  JAMES  OTIS. 

which  the  author  thought  himself  to  improve  on  the 
existing  treatises  on  that  subject.  The  afterpart  of  the 
pamphlet  is  devoted  to  a  curious  examination  of  the 
qualities  of  the  letters  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  al- 
phabets. 

In  this  he  attempts  to  teach  the  distinction  between 
quantity  and  accent  in  the  Greek  language,  but  more 
particularly  to  describe  the  position  and  physiological 
action  of  the  organs  of  speech  in  producing  the  elemen- 
tary sounds  in  the  languages  referred  to.  The  author 
declares  his  conviction  that  the  growth  of  science  had 

jvrJjs\h>~J-  U*/  er^  /Zo/v^Wv  ^  vr^TK-^"" 

been  seriously  impeded  by  the  inattention  of  people  to 
the  correct  utterance  of  elementary  sounds.  He  also 
points  out  the  great  abuses  in  the  prevailing  methods 
and  declares  that  these  abuses  have  so  impeded  the  work 
of  education  "that  many  have  remained  children  all 
their  days." 

Having  written  and  published  his  work  on  Latin  pros- 
ody, Mr.  Otis  next  produced  a  similar  work  on  the  pros- 
ody of  Greek.  This,  however,  he  did  not  publish,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  destroyed  the  manuscript  at  the  time 
of  burning  his  correspondence  near  the  end  of  his  life. 

A  conversation  of  James  Otis  is  narrated  by  Francis 
Bowen,  in  Jared  Sparks' s" American  Biography"  in  which 
the  orator  is  represented,  in  speaking  of  the  bad  literary 
taste  prevalent  among  the  boys  of  the  time,  as  saying, 
"These  lads  are  very  fond  of  talking  about  poetry  and 
repeating  passages  of  it.  The  poets  they  quote  I  know 
nothing  of;  but  do  you  take  care,  James,  [Otis  was  ad- 
dressing James  Perkins,  Esq.,  of  Boston]  that  you  don't 


JAMES  OTIS.  31 

give  in  to  this  folly.  If  you  want  to  read  poetry,  read 
Shakespeare,  Milton,  Dryden  and  Pope  and  throw  all 
the  rest  into  the  fire;  these  are  all  that  are  worth  read- 
ing." In  this  brief  comment  the  severity  of  Otis's  liter- 
ary taste  is  indicated  and  also  something  of  the  rather 
abrupt  and  dogmatic  character  of  his  mind.  His  criti- 
cism, though  true,  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  judicious. 

{ In  order   to  understand   the  part  which   Tames   Otis 

.  . 

played  in  the  great  work  of  revolution  and  independence 

it  is  now  necessary  to  note  with  care  the  conditions  into 
which  he  was  cast  and  with  which  he  was  environed  at 
that  period  of  his  life  when  the  man-fire  flames  highest 
and  the  audacity  of  the  soul  bounds  furthest  into  the 
arena  of  danger. 

Every  man  is  the  joint  product  of  himself  and  his  en- 
vironment. His  life  is  the  resultant  of  the  two  forces 
by  which  he  is  held  and  balanced.  At  the  time  when 
James  Otis  reached  his  thirty-fifth  year  a  condition 
had  supervened  in  the  American  colonies  which  re- 
acted upon  his  passionate  and  Patriotic  nature  so  pow- 
erfully as  to  bring  into  full  play  all  of  his  faculties  and 
to  direct  the  whole  force  of  his  nature  against  the  tyran- 
nical method  of  the  mother  country. 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  course  of  events  which 
had  preceded  and  which  succeeded  the  crisis  in  James 
Otis's  life,  and  made  him  the  born  leader  of  his  country- 
men in  their  first  conflict  for  independence. 

Great  Britain  had  aforetime  permitted  the  American 
colonists  to  plant  themselves  where,  when,  and  as  they 
would.  Almost  everv  colonial  settlement  had  been  an 


32  JAMES  OTIS. 

adventure.  The  emigrants  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  had  been  squeezed  out  by  the  hard  discipline  of 
church  and  state.  In  America  they  settled  as  they 
might. 

"And  England  didn't  look  to  know  or  care." 

In  the  language  of  one  of  the  bards  of  this  age, 
"That  is  England's  awful  way  of  doing  business." 

She  permitted  her  persecuted,  children  to  brave  the  in- 
tolerable ocean  in  leaking  ships,  to  reach  the  new  world 
if  they  could,  and  survive  if  they  might. 

Notwithstanding  this  hard  strain  on  the  sentiment  of 
the  Pilgrims,  the  Cavaliers,  and  the  Hugenots,  they  re- 
mained loyal  to  the  mother  country,  tThey  built  their 
little  states  in  the  wilderness  and  were  proud  to  christen 
their  towns  and  villages  with  the  cherished  names  of  the 
home  places  in  England.  They  defended  themselves  as 
well  as  they  could  against  the  inhospitality  of  nature, 
the  neglect  of  the  mother  country,  and  the  cruelty  of 
savage  races^ 

It  was  only  when  they  grew  and  multiplied  and  flour- 
ished that  our  little  seashore  republics  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  mother  land  and  suggested  to  the  minis- 
ters of  the  crown  the  possibility  of  plucking  something 
from  the  new  states  which  had  now  demonstrated  their 
ability  to  exist  and  to  yield  an  increase. 

i  Meanwhile,  for  six  generations,  the  colonists  had  de- 
veloped their  own  social  affairs  and  managed  their  own 
civil  affairs  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  case  and 
the  principles  of  democracy.  Their  methods  of  govern- 
ment were  necessarily  republican. 


JAMES  OTIS.  33 

The  military  necessities  which  were  ever  at  the  door 
had  taught  our  fathers  the  availability  of  arms  as  the 
final  argument  in  the  debate  with  wrong.  The  conflicts 
with  the  Indians  and  the  experiences  of  the  French  and 
Indian  war  had  shown  that  the  Americans  were  able  to 
hold  their  own  in  battle. 

Under  these  conditions  there  was  a  natural  growth  of 
public  opinion  in  the  colonies  tending  to  independence 
of  action,  and  to  indignant  protest  against  foreign  dicta- 
tion. In  the  sixth  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century 
many  of  the  leading  young  men  of  America  talked  and 
wrote  of  independence  as  a  thing  desirable  and  possible^ 

In  1755,  when  James  Otis  was  thirty  years  of  age,  his 
young  friend,  John  Adams,  sitting  one  day  in  his  school 
house  in  Connecticut,  wrote  this  in  his  diary:  "In  an- 
other century  all  Europe  will  not  be  able  to  subdue  us. 
The  only  way  to  keep  us  from  setting  up  for  ourselves 
is  to  disunite  us."// 

We  thus  notematural  conditions  as  tending  to  produce 
a  rebellion  of  the  American  colonies;  also  the  inherited 
disposition  of  the  colonists  under  the  discipline  of  their 
times;  also  the  growth  of  public  opinion  among  the 
leading  spirits — to  which  we  must  add  the  character  of 
the  reigning  king  and  of  the  ministers  to  whom  he  en- 
trusted his  government  as  the  general  conditions  ante- 
cedent to  the  revolutionary  movement  of  our  fathers. 

But  there  were  more  immediate  and  forceful  causes 
which  operated  to  the  same  end.  Among  these  should 
be  mentioned  as  a  prevailing  influence  the  right  of  arbi- 
trary government  claimed  by  Great  Britain  and  at  length 


34  JAMES  OTIS. 

resisted  by  the  colonists.  The  right  of  arbitrarily  con- 
trolling the  American  states  was  shown  in  a  number  of 
specific  acts  which  we  must  here  discuss. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  old  Navigation  Act  of  1651. 
The  measure  adopted  by  the   government  of  Cromwell 

had  never  been  stren- 
uously enforced.  It 
was  the  peculiarity 
of  all  the  early  legis- 
lation of  Great  Brit- 
ain relative  to  the 
colonies  that  it  was 
either  misdirected  or 
permitted  to  lapse  by 
disuse. 

The  colonies  thus 
literally  grew,  with 
little  home  direc- 
tion .  After  the  navi- 
gation act  had  been 
nominally  in  force 
for  eighty-two  years 
it  was  revived  and 

Oliver  Cromwell.  ,  - 

supplemented  by  an- 
other measure  known  as  the  Importation  Act. 

This  statute,  dating  from  the  year  1733,  was  intended 
to  be  an  acthal  device  for  controlling  the  commercial  re- 
lations with  the  colonies.  By  the  terms  of  the  Act 
heavy  duties  were  laid  on  all  the  sugar,  molasses,  and 
rum  which  should  be  imported  into  the  colonies.  The 


JAMES  OTIS.  35 

customs  were  exorbitant  and  were  from  the  first  evaded 
as  far  as  possible  by  the  American  merchants. 

This  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  actual  breach  of  jus- 
tice on  the  one  side  and  good  faith  on  the  other,  as  be- 
tween the  home  government  and  the  American  depen- 
dencies of  Great  Britain. 

The  reader  will  note  that  the  question  at  issue  was 
from  the  first  commercial.  It  was  a  question  of  taking 
something  from  the  colonists  and  of  giving  no  equivalent, 
either  in  value  or  political  rights.  Had  the  American 
colonists  been  willing  to  be  taxed  and  searched  without 
an  equivalent,  then  would  there  have  been  no  revolu- 
tion. 

It  will  be  noted  from  the  nature  of  the  question  that 
the  issue,  since  it  was  a  matter  of  the  merchants,  was 
also  a  matter  of  the  cities.  For  the  merchant  and  the 
city  go  together.  With  the  country  folk  of  the  pre-rev- 
olutionary  era,  the  faultfinding  and  dispute  related  al- 
ways to  political  questions  proper — to  questions  of  rights 
as  between  the  king  arid  his  subjects;  to  questions  of  in- 
stitutional forms,  the  best  method  of  governing,  etc. 

All  of  these  matters,  however,  could  have  been  easily 
adjusted,  and  if  there  were  an  "if"  in  history  they  would 
have  been  adjusted  without  revolution  and  without  in- 
dependence. The  commercial  question,  however,  in- 
volving money  rights,  and  implying  the  privilege  and 
power  of  the  Mother  Country  to  take  from  the  Colonists 
their  property,  however  small  the  amount,  could,  but  en- 
gender resistance,  and  if  the  claim  were  not  relinquished 
could  but  lead  to  war  and  disruption.  c^i^n( 


36  JAMES  OTIS. 

The  neglected  growth  of  the  Colonies  had  in  the  mean- 
time established  in  the  seaboard  towns  of  America, 
usages  and  customs  which  were  repugnant  to  British  no- 
tions of  regular  and  orderly  government.  The  commer- 
cial life  had  taken  a  form  of  its  own. 

The  Americans  had  built  ships  and  warehouses.  They 
had  engaged  in  commerce  as  they  would.  They  had 
made  their  trade^  as  free  as  possible.  They  had  ignored 
the  old  Navigation  Act,  and  when  the  Importation  Act 
was  passed,  it  confronted  a  condition  in  America.  It 
applied  to  a  state  of  affairs  that  already  existed. 

The  American  ship,  trading, with  the  West  Indies  and 
bringing  back  to  Boston  a  c^rgo  of  111010:8865  or  rum,  was 
met  at  custom  house  with  an  exorbitant  requisition. 
The  officer  acting  under  the  Importation  "Act,  virtually 
said,  "Stand  and  deliver. " 

If  it  were  a  British  ship  the  resistance  to  the  duty 
would  be  offered  by  the  land  merchants  rather  than 
by  the  sea  traders;  for  the  merchants  did  not  desire  that 
the  cost  of  the  merchandise  to  themselves  and  their  cus- 
tomers should  be  doubled  without  some  equivalent  ad- 
vantage. No  equivalent  advantage  was  either  visible  or 
invisible.  What,  therefore,  should  they  do  but  first 
evade  and  then  openly  resist? J/^C^L)^ 

There  was  an  epoch  oLevasion.  This  covered  a  peri- 
od of  about  seventeen  years,  extending  from  1733  to 
1750.  In  the  latter  year  an  act  was  passed  by  Parlia- 
ment forbidding  the  erection  of  iron  works  in  America. 
The  manufacture  of  steel  was  especially  interdicted. 
The  measure  which  was  in  reality  directed  against  ship- 


JAMES  OTIS.  37 

building  included  a  provision  which  forbade  the  felling 
of  pines  outside  of  enclosures.  It  was  thus  sought  by 
indirection  to  prevent  the  creation  of  a  merchant  marine 
by  the  American  Colonists  and  to  limit  their  commerce 
to  British  ships.  This  measure  like  the  Importation 
Act  was  also  ignored  and  resisted.  For  eleven  years  the 
Americans  persisted  in  their  usual  course,  making  iron, 
cutting  pine  timber  and  building  ships,  importing  mo- 
lasses and  rum,  evading  the  duties,  and  thus  getting 
themselves  into  the  category  of 


It  was  this  precise  condition  of  affairs  which  led  to  a 
still  more  stringerlt  measure  on  the  part  of  the  home 
government.  It  was  determined  in  Parliament  to  put 
an  end  to  the  evasion  and  resistance  of  the  American 
merchants  and  importers  with  respect  to  the  existing 
laws.  The  customs  should  be  collected.  It  was  deemed 
best,  however,  that  the  new  measure  should  issue  from 
the  judiciary. 

An  appeal  was  made  to  the  Court  of    Exchequer^  in^ 
England    for   the    granting    of    search    warrants    to  be  ^ 
issued    in    America    by  ^the     king's    officers     for   the 
purpose  of  ferreting  out  contraband  goods.     These  war- 
rants granted   by   the    Court   of   Exchequer   were   the 
Writs    of    Assistance,    the    name    of   which   appears  so 
frequently  and  with  so  much  odium  in  the  colonial  his- 
tory of  the  times.     These  writs  were  granted   by    the 
court  under  pressure  of  the  ministry  in  the  year  1760. 

The  Writs  of  Assistance  were  directed  to  the  officers 
of  the  customs  in  America.  But  any  officer  could  arm 
one  of  his  subordinates,  or  indeed  any  other  person  whom 


38  JAMES  OTIS. 

he  should  designate,  with  one  of  the  writs,  and  the  person 
so  appointed  might  act  in  the  name  of  the  king's  officer. 
The  thing  to  be  done  was  the  examination  of  any  place 
and  all  places  where  contraband-goods  might  be  supposed 
to  be  lodged.  Whether  there  were  evidence  or  no  evi- 
dence, the  case  was  the  same.  The  document  was  a 
writ  of  arbitrary  search. 

Any  house,  piiblic  or  private,  might  be  entered  at  any 
time;  any  closet  or  any  cellar  might  be  opened.  Neither 
the  bridal  chamber  nor  the  room  of  the  dead  was  sacred 
on  the  approach  of  any  petty  customs  constable  or  deputy 
in  whose  hands  a  Writ  of  Assistance  had  been  placed. 
The  antecedent  proceedings  required  no  affidavit  or  any 
other  legal  formality.  The  object  was  to  lay  bare  the 
whole  privacy  of  a  people  on  sheer  suspicion  of  smug- 
gling- 
It  could  hardly  be  supposed  that  our  fathers  would 
tamely  submit  to  such  an  odious  and  despotic  proced- 
ure. To  have  done  so  would  have  been  to  subscribe  to 
a  statute  for  their  own  enslavement.  Nor  may  we  pass 
from  the  consideration  of  these  writs  and  the  resistance 
offered  thereto  by  the  patriots  of  all  our  colonies  without 
noticing  the  un-English  character  of  these  laws. 

Of  a  certainty  Englishmen  in  whatever  continent  or 
island  of  this  world  would  never  tolerate  such  a  tyranni- 
cal interference  with  their  rights.  This  was  demon- 
strated not  only  in  America,  but  in  England  also. 

The  issuance  in  England  of  just  such  illegal  and  arbi- 
trary warrants  was  one  of  the  causes  that  led  to  the  tre- 
mendous agitation  headed  by  John  Wilkes.  The  ex- 


JAMES  OTIS.  39- 

citement  in  that  controversy  grew,  and  notwithstanding 
the  repeated  arrests  of  Wilkes  and  his  expulsions  from 
Parliament,  his  reelection  was  repeated  as  often,  and  his 
following  increased  until  not  only  the  ministry  but  the 
throne  itself  was  shaken  by  the  cry  of  "Wilkes  and 
Liberty."  Nor  did  this  well-timed  ebullition  of  human 
rights  subside  until  the  arbitrary  warrants  were  annulled 
by  a^decision  of  the  King's  Bench. 

It  was  the  trial  of  this  issue  in  America  that  brought 
on  the  Revolution.  It  was  a  great  cause  that  had  to  be 
pleaded,  and  the  occasion  and  the  city  and  the  man, were 
as  great  as  the  cause.  The  parties  to  it  were  clearly  de- 
fined, and  were  set  in  sharp  antagonism. 

On  the  one  side  were  the  king's  officers  in  the  prov- 
ince, headed  by  the  governor.  This  following  included 
the  officers  of  the  customs  in  particular.  It  also  included 
the  not  inconsiderable  class  of  American  respectabilities 
who  were  feeble  in  American  sentiments,  and  who  be- 
longed by  nature  and  affiliation  to  the  established  or- 
der. These  were  the  loyalists,  destined  to  be  designa- 
ted as  Tories,  and  to  become  the  bete  noire  of  patriotism* 

On  the  other  side  was  a  whole  phalanx  of  the  common 
people — a  phalanx  bounded  on  the  popular  side  by  the 
outskirt  of  society  and  on  the  high-up  side  by  the  intel- 
lectual and  philosophical  patriots  who  were  as  pronounced 
as  any  for  the  cause  of  their  country,  and  with  better 
reason  than  the  reason  of  the  many. 

The  officers  of  the  province  elected  by  the  home  folks 
were  all  patriots,  but  the  appointed  officers  of  the  crown 
were  quite  unanimous  for  the  prerogative  of  the  crown, 


40  JAMES  OTIS. 

holding  that  severe  measures  should  be  taken  with  the 
resisting  colonists,  and  in  particular  that  the  Writs  of 
Assistance  were  good  law  and  correct  policy. 

We  should  here  note  the  particular  play  of  the  per- 
sonal forces  in  the  year 
1760.  There  were  two 
notable  deaths  —  the 
one  notable  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  other 
in  the  world.  The  first 
was  that  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice  Stephen  Sewall  of 
Massachusetts,  and  the 
other  was  that  of  His 
Majesty  George  II,  the 

"Snuffy  old  drone  from 
the  German  hive," 

as  he  is  described  by 
the  "Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast  Table. "  The 
first  was  succeeded  in 
office  by  Thomas 
George  ii.  Hutchinson,  Lieuten- 

ant-Governor  of  the  province  under  Sir  Francis  Ber- 
nard, who  was  appointed  governor  in  this  notable  year 
1760  as  the  successor  of  Thomas  Pownall,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Governor  William  Shirley. 

Hutchinson — to  use  the  adjective  which  John  Adams 
was  wont  to  apply  to  himself  and  other  patriots  to  the 
manner  born — was  a  Massachusettensian.  He  had  sym- 


JAMES  OTIS.  41 

pathized  with  the  people,  but  he  now  turned  against 
them.  Before  Judge  Sewall  went  away  it  was  said  and 
believed  that  Governor  Shirley  had  promised  the  place 
of  Chief  Justice,  when  the  same  should  be  vacant,  to  no 
other  than  Colonel  James  Otis  of  Barnstable,  father  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

But  Governor  Bernard,  Shirley's  second  successor  in 
office,  took  another  view  of  the  matter  and  appointed 
Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson  to  the  high  office  of 
Chief  Justice. 

It  was  the  belief  and  allegation  of  the  King's  party 
that  this  appointment  and  this  disappointment — the 
first  of  Hutchinson  and  the  second  of  Colonel  Otis — 
bore  heavily  on  all  the  Otises,  and  indeed  converted 
them  from  loyalism  to  patriotism. 

Chief  Justice  Hutchinson  himself  is  on  record  to  this 
effect.  In  his  "History  of  Massachusetts,"  speaking  of 
his  own  appointment  to  the  judicial  office,  he  says: 

"The  expected  opposition  ensued.  Both  gentlemen 
(that  is,  Colonel  Otis  and  James  Otis,  Jr.)  had  been 
friends  to  the  government.  From  this  time  they  were 
at  the  head  of  every  measure  in  opposition,  not  merely 
in  those  points  which  concerned  the  Governor  in  his 
administration,  but  in  such  as  concerned  the  authority 
of  Parliament;  the  opposition  to  which  first  began  in 
this  colony,  and  was  moved  and  conducted  by  one  of 
them,  both  in  the  Assembly  and  the  town  of  Boston. 
From  so  small  a  spark,  a  great  fire  seems  to  have  been 
kindled." 

The  statement  of  a  partisan,  especially  if  he  be  a  bene- 


42  JAMES  OTIS. 

ficiary,  must  be  taken  with  the  usual  allowance  of  salt. 

It  may  be  that  the  patriotic  trend  of  the  Otises  was  in- 
tensified a  little  by  a  personal  pique  in  the  matter  re- 
ferred to.  But  that  either  father  or  son  was  transferred 
from  the  king's  party  to  the  people's  party  by  the  fail- 
ure of  Colonel  Otis  to  be  appointed  Chief  Justice  is  not 
to  be  believed.  Other  stories  are  to  be  dismissed  in  the 
same  manner. 

One  slander  prevalent  about  the  Custom  House  ran  to 
the  effect  that  James  Otis  had  declared  that  he  would 
set  the  province  on  fire  even  if  he  had  to  perish  in  the 
flames.  The  art  of  political  lying  was  known  even 
among  our  fathers. 

Such  was  the  situation  of  affairs  when  the  sycophants 
of  the  foreign  government  in  Boston  undertook  to  en- 
force the  Writs  of  Assistant.  They  soon  found  that  they 
needed  more  assistance  to  do  it.  The  banded  merchants, 
and  the_patriats-  generally  ^  said  that  the-acts_wj£r£-illegal, 
and-  thatThey  w«uld  not  submit  to- -the  officers.  The 
governor  and  his  subordinates  and  the  custom-house  ret- 
inue in  particular,  said  that  the  writs  were  legal,  and 
that  they  should  be  enforced.  The  matter  came  to  a 
clash  and  a  trial. 

The  case  as  made  up  presented  this  question:  Shall 
the  persons  employed  in  enforcing  the  Acts  of  Trade 
have  the  power  to  invoke  generally  the  assistance  .of  all 
the  executive  officers  of  the  colony? 

This  issue  was,  in  February  of  1 761,  taken  into  court  in 
the  old  Town  House,  afterwards  the  old  State  House,  of 
Boston.  There  were  sitting  the  five  Judges  of  the  Su- 


The  Old  Town  House  (now  Old  State  House),  Boston. 

(From  a  photograph  by  Pollock.  1898.) 

In  the  hall,  where  the  lights  appear,  in  the  second  story  of  this  building, 
James  Otis  thundered  for  live  hours  against  the  Writs  of  Assistance.  About  a 
hundred  yards  in  front  of  this  building  the  first  blood  of  the  Revolution  was 
shed. 


44  JAMES  OTIS. 

perior  Court  of  the  province.  Chief  Justice  Hutchinson, 
still  holding  the  office  of  Lieutenant-Governor,  his  mem- 
bership in  the  Council,  and  his  position  of  Judge  of  Pro- 
bate, presided  at  the  trial.  Perhaps  there  was  never  in 
America  an  instance  in  which  a  high  official  so  nearly 
fulfilled  the  part  of  "Pooh  Bah." 

The  trial  evoked  an  attendance  of  all  who  could  be 
admitted,  and  of  many  more.  The  officers  of  the  crown 
were  out  in  full  force,  and  resolute  patriotism  completed 
the_crowd.  John  Adams  was  one  of  the  spectators. 
ifAnother  element  in  the  dramatic  situation  was  the  fact 
that  James  Otis  had,  in  the  meantime,  received  the  ap- 
pointment to  the  crown  office  of  Advocate  General,  to 
which  an  ample  salary  was  attached.  In  this  relation  it 
would  be  his  especial  duty  to  support  the  petition  of  the 
custom-house  officers  in  upholding  the  Writs  of  Assist- 
ance and  in  constraining  the  executive  officers  of  the 
province  to  support  them  in  doing  so. 

This  contingency  brought  out  the  mettle  of  the  man. 
When  the  revenue  officers  came  to  him  with  the  request 
that  he  defend  their  case,  he  at  once  resigned  his  office, 
and  this  being  known  the  merchants  immediately  sought 
his  services  as  counsel  to  uphold  their  protest  against 
the  Writs.  For  his  assistant  they  selected  Mr.  Oxen- 
bridge  Thatcher. 

Otis  accepted  the  invitation  without  a  fee.  His  action 
involved  the  loss  of  his  official  position  as  well  as  his 
means  of  living.  It  chanced  at  this  time  that  his  old 
law  preceptor,  Jeremiah  Gridley,  was  selected  as  King's 
Attorney,  and  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  take  the  place  which 


JAMES  OTIS.  45 

Dtis  would   not  accept.     Thus  master  and  pupil  were 
Drought  face  to  face  at  the  bar    in    the    hottest   legal 
mcounter  which  preceded  our  rupture  with  the  mother 
:ountry. 
The  trial  that  ensued  has   been   described   by  John 


Council  Room,  Old  State  House,  Boston,  where  Otis  delivered  his  Address 
against  the  Writs  of  Assistance. 

A.dams,  an  eye  witness  of  the  whole  proceedings.  He 
jives  in  his  works  a  description  of  the  conduct  of  the 
:ase  as  it  was  presented  for  and  against  the  crown,  and 
ilso  notes  of  Otis's  argument 

After  the  pleas  were  presented  and  other  preliminary 
matters   arranged,    Mr.  Gridley  addressed  the  court  in 


46  JAMES  OTIS. 

support  of  the  government's  position.  He  defended  the 
petition  of  the  custom-house  officials  as  both  legal  and 
just.  Two  statutes  of  the  time  of  Charles  II,  empower- 
ing the  court  of  Exchequer  to  issue  writs  such  as  those 
which  were  now  denied,  were  adduced.  He  then  cited 
the  statute  of  the  sixth  year  of  Queen  Anne,  which 
continued  to  inforce  the  processes  which  had  been 
authorized  in  the  twelfth  and  fourteenth  years  of  the 
reign  of  Charles. 

Still  more  to  the  point  were  the  statutes  of  the  seventh 
and  eighth  years  of  William  III,  which  authorized  the 
collection  of  revenue  "in  the  British  plantations"  by  offi- 
cers who  might  search  both  public  and  private  houses  to 
find  goods  that  had  evaded  the  duty.  These  statutes  Mr. 
Gridley  claimed  as  a  warrant  for  the  like  usage  in 
America. 

In  answer  to  Gridley,  Oxenbridge  Thatcher,  *  himself  a 
lawyer  of  no  mean  abilities,  spoke  for  the  counter  peti- 
tioners. His  plea  was  a  strong  confutation  of  Gridley's 
arguments.  After  this  brief  address  Mr.  Otis  rose  to 
continue  the  plea  for  the  people. 

Of  the  speech  which  followed  we  have  no  complete 
record  or  wholly  satisfactory  summary.  It  is  to  John 


*  John  Adams  attempts  to  classify  the  pre-revolutionary  orators 
of  New  England  according  to  their  ardor  and  influence.  "The  char- 
acters," says  he,  "the  most  conspicuous,  the  most  ardent  and  influen- 
tial, from  1760  to  1766,  were  first  and  foremost,  above  all  and  over  all 
James  Otis;  next  to  him  was  Oxenbridge  Thatcher?  next  to  him, 
Samuel  Adams;  next  to  him,  John  Hancock;  then  Doctor  May-hew." 
—Works  of  John  Adams,  Vo\.  X,  p.  284. 

If  we  should  insert  in  this  list  the  name  of  John  Adams  himself, 
his  place  would  be  between  his  cousin  and  Hancock. 


JAMES  OTIS.  47 

Adams,  and  to  the  notes  which  he  made  on  the  occa- 
sion, that  we  must  look  for  our  opinion  of  what  was,  if 
we  mistake  not,  the  greatest  and  most  effective  oration 
delivered  in  the  American  colonies  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. Such  was  the  accepted  belief  of  those  who  heard 
Otis,  and  witnessed  the  effect  of  his  tremendous  oratory: 

Making  all  allowance  for  exaggeration,  it  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  those  inspired  appeals  by  which  His- 
tory and  Providence  at  critical  epochs  make  themselves 
known  to  mankind.  John  Adams,  then  twenty-five 
years  of  age,  passing  from  his  notes  of  Thatcher's 
speech,  says  of  the  greater  actor: 

"But  Otis  was  a  flame  of  fire;  with  a  promptitude  of 
classical  allusions,  a  depth  of  research,  a  rapid  summary 
of  historical  events  and  dates,  a  profusion  of  legal  author- 
ities, a  prophetic  glance  of  his  eyes  into  futurity,  and  a 
rapid  torrent  of  impetuous  eloquence,  he  hurried  away 
all  before  him.  American  Independence  was  then  and 
there  born.  The  seeds  of  patriots  and  heroes,  to  defend 
the  Non  sine  diis  animosus  infans,  to  defend  the  vigor- 
ous youth,  were  then  and  there  sown.  Every  man  of 
an  immense  crowded  audience  appeared  to  me  to  go 
away,  as  I  did,  ready  to  take  arms  against  Writs  of  As- 
sistance. Then  and  there  was  the  first  scene  of  the  first 
act  of  opposition  to  the  arbitrary  claims  of  Great  Britain. 
Then  and  there  the  child  Independence  was  born.  In 
fifteen  years,  that  is  in  1776,  he  grew  up  to  manhood, 
and  declared  himself  free." 

We  may  allow  a  little  for  the  enthusiasm  of  a  young 
patriot  such  as  Adams,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 


4g  JAMES  OTIS. 

his   unmeasured   eulogy  was  well  deserved.     Such  was 

the  description  of  Otis' s  speech. 

As  to  the  speech  itself  we  have  only    a   second-hand 
and  inadequate  report.     Minot,  in  his  "History  of   Mas- 


Relic  Room,  Old  State  House,  Boston. 

sachusetts,"  presents  what  purports  to  be  a  tolerably  full 
outline  of  the  great  address. 

Mr.  Otis  spoke  for  five  hours,  during  which  time 
with  his  rather  rapid  utterance  he  would  perhaps  de- 
liver an  oration  of  30,000  words.  Minot' s  report  ap- 
pears to  have  been  derived  from  Adams'  notes  done 
into  full  form  by  an  unknown  writer,  who  proba- 


JAMES  OTIS.  '49 

bly  put  in  here  and  there  some  rather  florid  paragraphs 
of  his  own.  At  a  subsequent  period,  Adams  took  up  the 
subject  and  corrected  Minot's  report,  giving  the  revised 
address  to  William  Tudor,  who  used  the  same  in  his 
biography  of  .James  Otis.  From  these  sources  we  are 
able  t9  present  a  fair  abstract  of  what  were  the  leading 
parts  of  Otis's  speech.  In  the  beginning  he  said: 

"May  it  please  your  Honors: 

"I  was  desired  by  one  of  the  court  to  look  into  the 
books,  and  consider  the  question  now  before  them  con- 
cerning Writs  of  Assistance.  I  have  accordingly  con- 
sidered it,  and  now  appear,  not  only  in  obedience  to 
your  order,  but  likewise  in  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of 
this  town,  who  have  present  another  petition,  and  out  of 
regard  to  the  liberties  of  the  subject.  And  I  take  this 
liberty  to  declare,  that,  whether  under  a  fee  or  not  (for 
in  such  a  cause  as  this  I  despise  a  fee),  I  will  to  my  dy- 
ing day  oppose,  with  all  the  powers  and  faculties  God 
has  given  me,  all  such  instruments  of  slavery  on  the  one 
hand,  and  villainy  on  the  other,  as  this  Writ  of  Assist- 
ance is. 

"It  appears  to  me  the  worst  instrument  of  arbitrary 
power,  the  most  destructive  of  English  liberty  and  the 
fundamental  principles  of  law,  that  was  ever  found  in  an 
English  law-book.  I  must,  therefore,  beg  your  Honors' 
patience  and  attention  to  the  whole  range  of  an  argu- 
ment, that  may,  perhaps,  appear  uncommon  in  many 
things,  as  well  as  to  points  of  learning  that  are  more  re- 
mote and  unusual,  that  the  whole  tendency  of  my  design 
may  the  more  easily  be  perceived,  the  conclusions  better 


5o   *  JAMES  OTIS. 

descend,  and  the  force  of  them  be  better  felt. 

"I  shall  not  think  much  of  my  pains  in  this  case,  as  I  en- 
gaged in  it  from  principle.  I  was  solicited  to  argue  this 
case  as  advocate-general;  and  because  I  would  not,  I  have 
been  charged  with  desertion  from  my  office.  To  this 
charge  I  can  give  a  very  sufficient  answer.  I  renounced 
that  office,  and  I  argue  this  case,  from  the  same  principle; 
and  I  argue  it  with  the  greater  pleasure,  as  it  is  in  favor 
of  British  liberty,  at  a  time  when  we  hear  the  greatest 
monarch  upon  earth  declaring  from  his  throne,  that  he 
glories  in  the  name  of  Briton,  and  that  the  privileges  of 
his  people  are  dearer  to  him  than  the  most  valuable  pre- 
rogatives of  his  crown ;  and  it  is  in  opposition  to  a  kind 
of  power,  the  exercise  of  which,  in  fonner  periods  of 
English  history,  cost  one  king  of  England  his  head,  and 
another  his  throne. 

"I  have  taken  more  pains  in  this  case  than  I  ever 
will  take  again,  although  my  engaging  in  this  and  anoth- 
er popular  case  has  raised  much  resentment.  But  I 
think  I  can  sincerely  declare,  that  I  cheerfully  submit 
myself  to  every  odious  name  for  conscience'  sake  ;  and 
from  my  soul  I  despise  all  those  whose  guilt,  malice 
or  folly,  has  made  them  my  foes. 

"Let  the  consequences  be  what  they  will,  I  am  deter- 
mined to  proceed.  The  only  principles  of  public  conduct, 
that  are  worthy  of  a  gentleman  or  a  man,  are  to  sacrifice 
estate,  ease,  health  and  applause,  and  even  life,  to  the  sa- 
cred calls  of  his  country . 

"These  manly  sentiments,  in  private  life,  make  the 
good  citizen;  in  public  life,  the  patriot  and  the  hero.  I 


JAMES  OTIS.  51 

do  not  say  that,  when  brought  to  the  test,  I  shall  be  in- 
vincible. I  pray  God  I  may  never  be  brought  to  the 
melancholy  trial ;  but  if  ever  I  should,  it  will  then  be 
known  how  far  I  can  reduce  to  practice  principles  which 
I  know  to  be  founded  in  truth.  In  the  meantime,  I 
will  proceed  to  the  subject  of  this  writ." 

After  this  introductory  part  we  are  obliged  to  fall  back 
on  the  summary 
given  by  Mr.  Ad- 
ams. According  to 
his  report,  Otis  in 
the  next  place 
went  into  funda- 
mentals and  dis- 
cussed the  rights 
of  man  in  a  state 
of  nature.  In  this 
part,  the  argument 
ran  in  an  anal  a- 1 
gotis  vein  to  that 
of  Rousseau  in  the 
Contrat  Social ; 
that  is,  man  in  the  first  place  is  a  sovereign  subject  only 
to  the  higher  laws  revealed  in  his  own  conscience.  In 

o 

this  state  he  has  a  right  to  life,  to  liberty,  to  property. 
Here  the  speaker  fell  into  the  manner  of  Jefferson  in 
the  opening  paragraphs  of  the  Declaration.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  Otis  presented  the  truth  absolutely;  he  includ- 
ing negroes  in  the  common  humanity  to  whom  inaliena- 
ble rights  belong. 


John  Adams. 


52  JAMES  OTIS. 

Mr.  Otis  next  took  up  the  social  compact,  and  showed 

that  society  is  the  individual  enlarged  and  generalized. 

This  brought  him  to  the  question  before  the  court ;    for 

(fjthe  conflict  now  on  was  a  struggle  of  society,   endowed 

i'with  inalienable  rights,  against  arbitrary  authority  and 

Vv 

^  abusive  exercise. 

The  abusive  exercise  was  shown  in  the  attempts  to 
enforce  the  Acts  of  Trade.  Of  this  kind  was  the  old 
Navigation  Act,  and  of  like  character  was  the  Importa- 
tion  Act.  It  was  to  enforce  these  that  the  Writs  of  Assist- 
ance  had  been  devised.  Mr.  Otis  then  continued: 

"Your  Honors  will  find,  in  the  old  books  concerning 
the  office  of  a  justice  of  the  peace,  precedents  of  general 
warrants  to  search  suspected  houses.  But,  in  more 
modern  books,  you  will  find  only  special  warrants  to 
search  such  and  such  houses,  specially  named,  in  which 
the  complainant  has  before  sworn,  that  he  suspects  his 
goods  are  concealed  ;  and  will  find  it  adjudged,  that 
special  warrants  only  are  legal.  In  the  same  manner,  I 
rely  in  it,  that  the  writ  prayed  for  in  this  petition,  being 
general,  is  illegal.  It  is  a  power  that  places  the  liberty 
of  every  man  in  the  hands  of  every  petty  officer. 

"I  say,  I  admit  that  special  Writs  of  Assistance,  to 
search  special  places,  may  be  granted  to  certain  per- 
sons on  oath  ;  but  I  deny  that  the  writ  now  prayed  for 
can  be  granted;  for  I  beg  leave  to  make  some  observa- 
tions on  the  writ  itself,  before  I  proceed  to  other  acts 
of  Parliament. 

"In  the  first  place,  the  writ  is  universal,  being  directed 
to  'all  and  singular  justices,  sheriffs,  constables,  and  all 


'-JAMES  OTIS.  53 

other  officers  and  subjects;'  so  that,  in  short,  it  is  direct- 
ed to  every  subject  in  the  King's  dominions.  Every 
one,  with  this  writ,  may  be  a  tyrant  in  a  legal  manner, 
and  may  control,  imprison,  or  murder,  any  one  within 
the  realm. 

"In  the  next  place  it  is  perpetual;  there  is  no  re- 
turn. A  man  is  accountable  to  no  person  for  his  do- 
ings. Every  man  may  reign  secure  in  his  petty  tyranny, 
and  spread  terror  and  desolation  around  him,  until  the 
trump  of  the  archangel  shall  excite  different  emotions  in 
his  soul. 

"In  the  third  place,  a  person  with  this  writ,  in  the 
daytime,  may  enter  all  houses,  shops,  etc.,  at  will,  and 
command  all  to  assist  him. 

"Fourthly,  by  this  writ,  not  only  deputies,  etc.,  but 
even  their  menial  servants,  are  allowed  to  lord  it  over 
us.  What  is  this  but  to  have  the  curse  of  Canaan  with 
a  witness  on  us  ?  To  be  the  servant  of  servants,  the  most 
despicable  of  God's  creation  ? 

"Now,  one  of  the  most  essential  branches  of  Eng- 
lish liberty  is  the  freedom  of  one's  house.  A  man's 
house  is  his  castle  ;  and  whilst  he  is  quiet,  he  is  as  well 
guarded  as  a  prince  in  his  castle.  This  writ,  if  it  should 
be  declared  legal,  would  totally  annihilate  this  privilege. 
Custom-house  officers  may  enter  our  houses  when  they 
please  ;  we  are  commanded  to  permit  their  entry.  Their 
menial  servants  may  enter,  may  break  locks,  bars,  and 
every  thing  in  their  way ;  and  whether  they  break 
through  malice  or  revenge,  no  man,  no  court,  can  inquire. 
Bare  suspicion,  without  oath,  is  sufficient. 


54  JAMES  OTIS. 

"This  wanton  exercise  of  this  power  is  not  a  chimeri- 
cal suggestion  of  a  heated  brain.  I  will  mention  some 
facts.  Mr.  Pew  had  one  of  these  writs,  and,  when  Mr. 
Ware  succeeded  him,  he  endorsed  this  writ  over  to  Mr. 
Ware;  so  that  these  writs  are  negotiable  from  one  officer 
to  another;  and  so  your  Honors  have  no  opportunity  of 
judging  the  persons  to  whom  this  vast  power  is  delega- 
ted. Another  instance  is  this: 

"Mr.  Justice  Walley  had  called  this  same  Mr.  Ware 
before  him,  by  a  constable,  to  answer  for  a  breach  of 
the  Sabbath-day  acts,  or  that  of  profane  swearing.  As 
soon  as  he  had  finished,  Mr.  Ware  asked  him  if  he  had 
done.  He  replied,  'Yes. '  'W7ell,  then,'  said  Mr.  Ware, 
'I  will  show  you  a  little  of  my  power.  I  command  you 
to  permit  me  to  search  your  house  for  uncustomed 
goods;'  and  went  on  to  search  the  house  from  the  gar- 
ret to  the  cellar;  and  then  served  the  constable  in  the 
same  manner. 

"But  to  show  another  absurdity  in  this  writ,  if  it  be 
established,  I  insist  upon  it,  every  person,  by  the  i4th 
of  Charles  the  Second,  has  this  power,  as  well  as  the 
custom-house  officers.  The  words  are,  'It  shall  be  law- 
ful for  any  person,  or  persons,  authorized,'  etc.  What 
a  scene  does  this  open.  Every  man  prompted  by  re- 
venge, ill-humor,  or  wantonness,  to  inspect  the  inside 
of  his  neighbor's  house,  may  get  a  Writ  of  Assistance. 
Others  will  ask  it  from  self-defence;  one  arbitrary  exer- 
tion will  provoke  another,  until  society  be  involved  in 
tumult  and  in  blood. " 

This   extract   may   serve  to   show   the  Demosthenic 


JAMES  OTIS.  55 

power  of  James  Otis  as  an  orator.  We  cannot  within 
our  limits  present  many  additional  paragraphs  from  his 
great  plea  in  the  cause  of  his  countrymen. 

In  the  next  division  of  his  argument  he  confuted  the 
position  taken  by  Grid- 
ley  with  respect  to  the 
alleged  legal  precedents 
for  the  Writs  of  Assist- 
ance. He  showed  that 
the  writs  were  wholly 
different  from  those 
provided  for  in  the  time 
of  Charles  II.  Even  if 
they  had  not  been  so, 
the  epoch  and  the  man- 
ner of  King  Charles  had 
passed  away.  Neither 
could  the  Writs  be  jus- 
tified by  inferences  and 
constructions  deduced 
from  any  previous  stat- 
utes of  Parliament. 

Besides,  such  odious  Writs  could  never  be  enforced. 
They  could  never  be  enforced  in  the  City  of  the  Pil- 
grims. If  the  King  of  England  should  himself  encamp 
with  twenty  thousand  soldiers  on  the  Common  of  Bos- 
ton, he  could  not  enforce  such  laws.  He  assailed  the 
sugar  tax  with  unmeasured  invective.  And  over  and 
above  all,  this  despotic  legislation  was  in  direct  conflict 
with  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts. 


Charles  II. 


56  JAMES  OTIS. 

Here  the  orator  broke  forth  in  his  most  impassioned 
strain  declaring  that  the  British  King,  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  British  nation,  were  all  guilty  of  ingrati- 
tude and  oppression  in  attempting  to  impose  tyrannical 
enactment  on  the  people  of  America.  Thus  he  con- 
cluded his  argument  and  appeal. 

Those  who  heard  the  oration  were  convulsed  with  ex- 
citement. The  King's  party  was  enraged.  The  patri- 
ots were  inspired  and  defiant.  It  was  in  every  respect  a 
critical  and  a  historic  hour. 

What  would  the  court  do  with  the  case  ?  The  action 
of  that  body  was  obscure  and  double.  There  seems  to 
have  been  a  disposition  of  the  Associate  Judges  to  decide 
for  the  counter-petitioners;  but  Chief  Justice  Hutchin- 
son  induced  them  to  assent  to  his  policy  of  withholding 
a  decision.  He  accordingly  announced  that  the  court 
would  decide  the  case  at  the  ensuing  session.  He  then 
wrote  to  the  home  government,  and  the  records  show 
that  the  decision  was  rendered  for  the  petitioners.  That 
is,  for  the  Custom  House  officials,  and  in  favor  of  the 
Write. 

The  Chief  Justice  is  also  on  record  to  the  effect  that 
he  continued  to  issue  the  Writs;  but  if  so,  no  officer  of 
the  king  ever  dared  to  present  one  of  them  in  Boston! 
The  famous  (and  infamous)  Writs  of  Assistance  were  as 
dead  as  the  mummies  of  Egypt. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  character  and 
work  of  James  Otis  appear  to  the  greatest  historical  ad- 
vantage. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  was  the  liv- 
ing voice  which  called  to  resistance,  first  Boston,  then 


Sw^ 


«"*• 


ill 


«« 

1 


The  Old  Custom  House  of  Boston. 

This  building  was  the  headquarters  of  the  King's  officers  in  the  time  when 
the  controversy  was  on  between  them  and  the  Merchants  of  Boston— a  controver- 
sy which,  fanned  to  a  flame,  became  a  revolutionary  conflagration  in  the  Ameri- 
can Colonies. 


58  JAMES  OTIS. 

Massachusetts,  then  New  England  and  then  the  world! 
For  ultimately  the  world  heard  the  sound  thereof  and 
was  glad.  The  American  Colonies  resisted,  and  at 
length  won  their  independence.  The  sparks  fell  in 
France,  and  the  jets  of  flame  ran  together  in  a  conflagra- 
tion the  light  of  which  was  seen  over  Europe,  and  if  over 
Europe,  then  over  the  world.  The  Pre-revolutionist  had 
cried  out  and  mankind  heard  him.  Resistance  to  tyr- 
anny became  obedience  to  God. 

We  shall  here  sketch  rapidly  and  briefly  the  unsteady 
way  and  unfortunate  decline  of  James  Otis  down  to  the 
time  of  the  eclipse  of  his  intellect  and  his  tragic  death. 

Three  months  after  he  had,  according  to  John  Adams, 
"breathed  into  the  nation  the  breath  of  life,"  he  was 
chosen  to  represent  Boston  in  the  legislature  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. All  of  his  colleagues  were  patriots.  Boston 
was  in  that  mood. 

There  runs  a  story  that  when  he  was  entering  upon 
his  duties  he  was  counselled  by  a  friend  to  curb  his 
impetuosity  and  to  gain  leadership  by  the  mastery  of  self 
—advice  most  salutary  to  one  of  his  temperament.  But 
it  was  much  like  advising  General  Putnam  to  be  calm 
at  Bunker  Hill!  Otis  promised,  however,  that  if  his 
friends  would  warn  him  when  his  temperature  was  ris- 
ing, he  would  command  himself. 

It  is  also  narrated  that  his  friends  did  attempt  to 
pluck  him  by  the  coat,  but  he  turned  upon  them  demand- 
ing to  know  if  he  was  a  school  boy  to  be  called  down! 

At  this  time  the  relations  between  Governor  Bernard 
and  the  Legislature  were  greatly  strained.  Otis  rather 


1AM ES  OTIS.  59 

increased  the  tension.  A  question  arose  about  a  finan- 
cial measure  whereby  gold  was  to  be  exported  and  silver 
money  retained  as  the  currency  of  the  colony — the  for- 
mer at  less  than  its  nominal  value — in  a  manner  to  jug- 
gle the  people  into  paying  their  obligations  twice  over. 
The  argument  became  hot  and  the  Council  taking  the 
side  of  the  administration  was  opposed  by  the  legislative 
assembly. 

Chief  Justice  Hutchinson  and  James  Otis  got  into  a 
controversy  which  was  bitter  enough,  and  which  may 
be  illustrated  with  the  following  letter  which  James 
Otis  addressed  to  the  printer  of  a  newspaper: 

"Perhaps  I  should  not  have  troubled  you  or  the  public 
with  any  thoughts  of  mine,  had  not  his  Honor  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  condescended  to  give  me  a  personal 
challenge.  This  is  an  honor  that  I  never  had  vanity 
enough  to  aspire  after,  and  I  shall  ever  respect  Mr. 
Hutchinson  for  it  so  long  as  I  live,  as  he  certainly  con- 
sulted my  reputation  more  than  his  own  when  he  be- 
stowed it.  A  general  officer  in  the  army  would  be 
thought  very  condescending  to  accept,  much  more  to 
give,  a  challenge  to  a  subaltern.  The  honor  of  entering 
the  lists  with  a  gentleman  so  much  one's  superior  in  one 
view  is  certainly  tempting;  it  is  at  least  possible  that 
his  Honor  may  lose  much;  but  from  those  who  have  and 
desire  but  little,  but  little  can  possibly  be  taken  away. 
"I  am  your  humble  servant, 

"JAMES  OTIS,  JR.  " 

This  controversy  continued  for  some  time,  and  it  is 
thought  that  to  it  must  be  attributed  much  of  the  ani- 


60  JAMES  OTIS. 

mosity  displayed  by  the  Chief  Justice  towards  Otis  in 
the  "History  of  Massachusetts  Bay." 

Mr.  Otis  continued  his  aggressive  policy  in  the  session 
of  the  assembly  held  in  1762.  It  was  at  this  session 
that  the  government  in  the  hope  of  getting  a  sum  of 
money  adopted  the  ruse  of  creating  an  alarm  relative  to 
a  French  invasion  of  Newfoundland.  But  the  patriots 
would  have  none  of  it.  They  went  so  far  as  to  say  that 
if  arbitrary  government  was  to  be  established  in  America, 
it  made  no  difference  whether  the  Americans  should 
have  King  Stork  or  King  Log.  To  this  effect  ran  a 
resolution  offered  by  James  Otis: 

"No  necessity  can  be  sufficient  to  justify  a  House  of 
Representatives  in  giving  up  such  a  privilege;  for  it 
would  be  of  little  consequence  to  the  people,  whether 
they  were  subject  to  George  or  Louis,  the  King  of  Great 
Britain  or  the  French  King;  if  both  were  arbitrary,  as 
both  would  be,  if  both  could  levy  taxes  without  Parlia- 
ment." 

It  is  said  that  when  this  resolution  was  offered  a  loy- 
alist member  cried  out  in  the  Virginian  manner,  '  'Treas- 
on, treason."  It  was  in  this  way  that  Mr.  Otis  gained 
the  undying  enmity  of  the  King's  party  in  America. 

It  was  in  the  period  following  his  legislative  service 
that  James  Otis  prepared  his  powerful  pamphlet  entitled 
"A  Vindication  of  the  Conduct  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay." 
In  this  work  he  traverses  and  justifies  the  course  pursued 
by  the  patriot  legislature  during  the  sessions  of  his  at- 
tendance. 


JAMES  OTIS.  61 

Great  was  the  joy  of  the  American  Colonies  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  French  and  Indian  War.  The  Treaty 
of  Paris  in  February  of  1763  conceded  Canada  to  Great 
Britain  and  insured  the  predominance  of  English  institu- 
tions in  the  New  World. 

The  animosities  of  the  Americans  towards  the  mother 
country  rapidly  subsided.  Meetings  were  held  in  the 
principal  towns  to  ratify  the  peace.  At  the  jubilee  in 
Boston,  James  Otis  presided.  He  made  on  the  occasion 
one  of  his  notable  addresses.  He  referred  with  enthusi- 
asm to  the  "expulsion  of  the  heathen" — meaning  the 
French,  and  then  expressed  sentiments  of  strong  affec- 
tion for  Great  Britain  and  appreciation  of  the  filial  rela- 
tions of  the  American  Colonies  to  her. 

In  these  utterances  Otis  reflected  the  sentiment  of  the 
Bostonians  and  of  the  whole  people.  The  General  As- 
sembly of  Massachusetts  took  up  the  theme  and  passed 
resolutions  of  gratitude  and  loyalty.  At  this  particular 
juncture  the  Americans  did  not  anticipate  what  was  soon 
to  follow. 

The  English  Ministry  was  already  preparing  a  scheme 
for  the  raising  of  revenue  in  America:  The  ques- 
tion of  the  right  of  taxation  suddenly  obtruded  itself. 
The  Americans  claimed  the  right  as  Englishmen  to  tax 
themselves.  The  English  ministers  replied  that  Parlia- 
ment, and  not  the  Colonial  Assemblies,  was  the  proper 
body  to  vote  taxes  in  any  and  all  parts  of  the  British 
Empire.  The  Americans  replied  that  they  were  not  rep- 
resented in  Parliament.  Parliament  replied  that  many 
of  the  towns,  shires,  and  boroughs  in  England  were  not 


62  JAMES  OTIS. 

represented.  If  they  were  not  represented,  they  ought  to 
be,  said  the  Americans;  -  and  thus  the  case  was  made  up. 

By  the  beginning^  17 -64_it  was  known  that  the  Min- 
isters had  determined  to  make  a  rigorous  enforcement  of 
the  Sugar  Act.  Than  this,  nothing  could  be  more  odi- 
ous to  America. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  just  named,  the  citizens 
of  Boston  held  a  great  meeting  to  protest  against  the 
impending  policy  of  the  crown.  As  a  member  of  the 
Assembly  and  as  chairman  of  a  committee  Mr.  Otis 
made  a  report  which  was  ordered  to  be  sent  to  the 
agent  of  the  government  along  with  the  copy  of  Otis's 
recent  pamphlet,  "The  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies  as- 
serted and  proved." 

At  this  time  Lieutenant-Governor  Hutchinson  was 
about  to  become  the  representative  of  the  Colony  in  its 
contention  with  the  crown  and  for  some  reason,  not  very 
apparent,  Mr.  Otis  favored  his  appointment.  Governor 
Bernard,  however,  opposed  the  measure,  and  Hutchinson 
declined  the  appointment.  Otis's  course. was  censured 
by  the  patriots  and  his  popularity  was  for  the  while  im- 
paired. However,  4re  took  strong  grounds  against  the 
Sugar  Act,  and  soon  afterward  still  more  strenuously  op- 
posed the  Stajnj^ct 

He  regained  the  impaired  confidence  of  the  people 
and  at  the  close  of  the  session  of  the  Assembly  he  was 
appointed  chairman  of  a  committee  to  correspond  with 
the  other  Colonies,  and  thus  to  promote  the  common 
interest  of  all.  This,  after  the  intercolonial  conference 
which  Franklin  had  promoted,  was  perhaps  the  first  step 


JAMES  OTIS.  63 

towards  the  creation  of  the  Continental  Congress.  Mr. 
Otis's  letter  to  the  provincial  agent  went  to  England, 
though  it  was  sent  in  the  name  of  the  Lower  House 
only.  In  this  document  the  writer  said: 

"Granting  the  time  may  come,  which  we  hope  is  far 
off,  when  the  British  Parliament  shall  think  fit  to  oblige 
the  North  Americans,  not  only  to  maintain  civil  govern- 
ment among  themselves,  for  this  they  have  already  done, 
but  to  support  an  army  to  protect  them,  can  it  be  possi- 
ble, that  the  duties  to  be  imposed  and  the  taxes  to  be 
levied  shall  be  assessed  without 
the  voice  or  consent  of  one  Amer- 
ican in  Parliament  ?  If  we  are  not 
represented,  we  are  slaves." 

This  document  was  one  of  the 
few  American  papers  which  was 
read  and  criticized  in  the  British 
Parliament.  The  merits  of  Mr. 
Otis's  pamphlet  were  actually 
debated  in  the  House  of  Lords  by 
Lord  Littleton  and  Lord  Mansfield.  The  latter  in  the 
course  of  his  remarks  said: 

"Otis  is  a  man  of  consequence  among  the  people  there. 
They  have  chosen  him  for  one  of  1heir  deputies  at  the 
Congress,  and  general  meeting  from  the  respective  gov- 
ernments. It  is  said  the  man  is  mad.  What  then? 
One  madman  often  makes  many.  Massaniello  was  mad, 
nobody  doubts;  yet  for  all  tlrat,  he  overturned  the  gov- 
ernment of  Naples.  Madness  is  catching  in  all  popular 
assemblies,  and  upon  all  popular  matters.  The  book  is 


Lord  Mansfield. 


64  JAMES  OTIS. 

full  of  wildness.  I  never  read  it  till  a  few  days  ago,  for 
I  seldom  look  into  such  things." 

It  was  in  the  course  of  this  pamphlet  that  the  Mr.  Otis 
spoke  so  strongly  on  taxation  and  representation.  "The 
very  act  of  taxing,"  said  he,  "exercised  over  those  who 
are  not  represented,  appears  to  me  to  be  depriving  them 
of  one  of  their  most  essential  rights;  and,  if  continued 
seems  to  be,  in  effect,  an  entire  disfranchisement  of  every 
civil  right.  For  what  one  civil  right  is  worth  a  rush, 
after  a  man's  property  is  subject  to  be  taken  from  him 
at  pleasure,  without  his  consent?"* 

In  this  was  the  germ  of  the  stern  resistance  offered  by 
the  Americans  to  the  StampjVct.  No  man  in  the  col- 
onies did  so  much  to  confute  the  principles  on  which  the 
Stamp  Act  rested  as  did  James  Otis. 

When  the  General  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  met  in 
May  of  1765,  Governor  Bernard  urged  in  his  address 
the  duty  of  submission  to  Parliament  as  to  the  "conser- 
vators of  liberty."  It  was  this  recommendation  which 
being  referred  to  a  Committee,  of  which  Otis  was  a 
member,  led  to  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  for  the  hold- 
ing of  a  Colonial  Congress  in  New  York. 

Nine  colonies  accepted  the  invitation  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  James  Otis  headed  the  delegation  of  three 
members  chosen  to  represent  the  mother  colony  in  that 
prophetic  body. 


*In  a  further  discussion  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown  Mr. 
Utis  said:  "When  the  Parliament  shall  think  fit  to  allow  the  colonists 
a  representation  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  equity  of  their  taxing 
the  colonists  will  be  as  clear  as  their  power  is,  at  present,  of  doing  it 
if  they  please." 


JAMES  OTIS.  65 

The  story  of  the  contest  of  the  Americans  with  the 
home  government  on  the  subject  of  the  Stamp  Act  is 
well  known.  The  controversy  resulted  on  the  i8th  of 
March,  1766,  in  the  repeal  of  the  Act  by  Parliament. 
But  the  repeal  was  accompanied  with  a  salvo  to  British 
obduracy  in  the  form  of  a  declaration  that  Parliament 
had  "the  right  to  bind  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatso- 
ever. ' ' 

Notwithstanding  this  hateful  addendum,  the  repeal  of 
the  Act  was  received  in  America  with  the  greatest  joy. 
During  the  excitement  antecedent  to  the  repeal,  mobs 
had  surged  through  the  streets  of  Boston,  building  bon- 
fires and  burning  effigies  of  officers  and  other  adherents 
of  the  king's  party.  In  one  of  these  ebullitions,  the 
house  of  Ljeuten  ant-Governor  Hutchinson  was  attacked 
and  pillaged.  The  better  people  had  nothing  to  do  with 
it.  Many  were  arrested  and  imprisoned. 

Governor  Bernard  was  so  much  alarmed  that  he  de- 
clared himself  to  be  a  governor  only  in  name.  The 
partisans  of  the  crown  started  a  story  that  James  Otis  was 
'the  instigator  of  the  riots.  There  is  a  hint  to  this  effect 
in  Hutchinson's  "History  of  Massachusetts  Bay."  But 
it  is  evident  that  the  charge  was  unfounded — except  in 
this,  that  in  times  of  public  excitement  the  utterances  of 
orators  are  frequently  wrested  from  their  purpose  by  the 
ignorant  and  made  to  do  service  in  the  cause  of  anarchy. 

Meanwhile  on  the  first  of  November,  Mr.  Otis  returned 
from  the  Congress  in  New  York,  laid  a  copy  of  the  pro- 
ceedings before  the  Assembly,  and  was  formally  thanked 
for  his  services. 


66  JAMES  OTIS. 

During  the  Stamp  Act  year,  Mr.  Otis  found  time  to 
compose  two  pamphlets  setting  forth  his  views  on  the 
great  questions  of  the  day.  There  had  recently  appeared 
a  letter  written  by  a  Halifax  gentleman  and  addressed 
to  a  Rhode  Island  friend.  The  latter  personage  was  un- 
known; the  former  was  ascertained  to  be  a  certain  Mr. 
Howard.  The  so-called  "Letter"  was  written  with 
much  ability  and  in  a  bitter  spirit. 

To  this  Otis  replied  with  great  asperity,  and  with  his 
power  of  invective  uutrammeled.  He  called  his  pam- 
phlet "A  Vindication  of  the  British  Colonies  against  the 
Aspersions  of  the  Halifax  Gentleman,  in  his  Letter  to  a 
Rhode  Island  Friend."  A  single  passage  from  the 
work  may  serve  to  show  the  cogency  of  the  writer's  style 
and  especially  his  anticipation  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

"Is  the  gentleman,"  said  he,  "a  British-born  subject 
and  a  lawyer,  and  ignorant  that  charters  from  the  crown 
have  usually  been  given  for  enlarging  the  liberties  and 
privileges  of  the  grantees,  not  for  limiting  them,  much 
less  for  curtailing  those  essential  rights,  which  all  his' 
Majesty's  subjects  are  entitled  to,  by  the  laws  of  God  and 
nature,  as  well  as  by  the  common  law  and  by  the  con- 
stitution of  their  country? 

"The  gentleman's  positions  and  principles,  if  true, 
would  afford  a  curious  train  of  consequences.  Life,  lib- 
erty, and  property  are,  by  the  law  of  nature,  as  well  as 
by  the  common  law,  secured  to  the  happy  inhabitants 
of  South  Britain,  and  constitute  their  primary,  civil,  or 
political,  rights." 


JAMES  OTIS.  67 

The  other  pamphlet  bearing  d.ate  of  September  4, 
1765,  was  entitled  "Considerations  on  Behalf  of  the  Col- 
onists, in  a  Letter  to  a  Noble  Lord."  In  this  the  writer 
discusses  the  question  of  Taxation  and  in  particular  the 
specious  claim  of  the  British  Ministry  that  the  home 
government  might  justly  tax  the  colonists  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  the  French  and  Indian  War. 

In  answer  to  this  Otis  says,  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
an  American  patriot  in  the  year  1898,  "The  national 
debt  is  confessed  on  all  hands  to  be  a  terrible  evil,  and 
may  in  time  ruin  the  state.  But  it  should  be  remem- 
bered, that  the  colonies  never  occasioned  its  increase, 
nor  ever  reaped  any  of  the  sweet  fruits  of  involving  the 
finest  kingdom  in  the  world  in  the  sad  calamity  of 
an  enormous,  overgrown  mortgage  to  state  and  stock- 
jobbers." 

The  period  here  under  consideration  was  that  in  which 
the  Stamp  Act  was  nominally  in  force.  The  law  re- 
quired all  legal  business  to  be  done  on  stamped  paper. 
Therefore  no  legal  business  was  done. 

Hutchinson  in  his  History  says:  "No  wills  were 
proved,  no  administrations  granted,  no  deeds  nor  bonds 
executed."  Of  course  matters  could  not  go  on  in  this 
manner  forever.  Governor  Bernard  was  induced  to 
call  the  legislature  together.  When  that  body  convened 
an  answer  to  the  Governor's  previous  message  was 
adopted  by  the  House,  and  the  answer  was  the  work  of 
James  Otis.  An  extract  will  show  the  temper  of  the 
people  at  that  juncture: 

"The  courts  of  justice  must  be  open,  open  immediate- 


68  JAMES  OTIS. 

ly,  and  the  law,  the  great  rule  of  right,  in  every  county 
in  the  province,  executed.  The  stopping  the  courts  of 
justice  is  a  grievance  which  this  House  must  inquire 
into.  Justice  must  be  fully  administered  through  the 
province,  by  which  the  shocking  effects  which  your 
Excellency  apprehended  from  the  people's  non-compli- 
ance with  the  Stamp  Act  will  be  prevented." 

Meanwhile  the  public  agitation  continued;  the  news- 
papers teemed  with  controversy.  The  administration 
was  firm,  but  patriotism  was  rampant.  The  party  of  the 
people  adopted  the  policy  of  embarrassing  the  govern- 
ment as  much  as  possible.  Then  came  the  news  of  the 
repeal  of  the  act,  and  the  jubilation  of  the  people  to 
which  we  have  already  referred  came  after. 

\^(hen  the  legislature  met  in  May  of  1767,  James 
Otis  was  chosen  speaker;  but  his  election  was  vetoed  by 
the  Governor.  The  House  was  obliged  to  submit,  which 
it  did  in  sullen  temper,  and  then  chose  Thomas  dishing 
for  its  presiding  officer.  The  other  elections  indicated 
the  patriotic  purpose  of  the  House. 

There  was  almost  a  deadlock  between  the  legislative 
and  executive  departments.  Governor  Bernard  ad- 
dressed the  representatives  in  a  supercilious  and  dogmat- 
ic manner,  which  they  for  their  part  resented  with  scant 
courtesy. 

On  one  occasion  they  said  (the  language  being  Otis' s) 
in  a  concluding  paragraph:  "With  regard  to  the  rest  of 
your  Excellency's  speech,  we  are  sorry  we  are  constrained 
to  observe,  that  the  general  air  and  style  of  it  savor  much 
more  of  an  act  of  free  grace  and  pardon,  than  of  a  parli- 


JAMES  OTIS.  69 

amentary  address  to  the  two  Houses  of  Assembly;  and 
we  most  sincerely  wish  your  Excellency  had  been 
pleased  to  reserve  it,  if  needful,  for  a  proclamation." 

The  state  papers  on  affairs — at  least  that  portion  of 
them  emanating  from  the  legislative  department — were, 
up  to  the  year  1769,  nearly  all  prepared  by  Mr.Otis;  but  it 
was  generally  necessary  to  tone  down  the  first  drafts  of 
his  work.  For  this  duty  the  speaker  (Thomas  Gushing) 
and  Samuel  Adams  were  generally  selected.  It  was 
reckoned  necessary  to  put  the  damper  on  the  fire ! 

The  popular  tendency  at  this  time  was  illustrated  in 
a  proposition  made  by  Mr.  Otis  to  open  the  gallery  of 
the  House  to  such  of  the  people  as  might  wish  to  hear 
the  debates. 

Otis  continued  his  correspondence,  a  great  deal  of 
which  was  official.  His  style  and  spirit  suited  the  tem- 
per of  the  representatives,  and  they  kept  him  occupied  as 
chairman  of  a  committee  to  answer  messages  from  the 
Government,  and,  indeed,  messages  from  anybody  who 
might  assail  the  patriot  party. 

In  the  meantime  the  animosity  between  him  and  the 
Governor  of  the  province  waxed  hot.  The  Governor 
constantly  charged  the  patriot  leader  with  being  an  in- 
cendiary, and  the  latter  replied  in  a  manner  to  convict 
Governor  Bernard  of  despotic  usages  and  a  spirit  hostile 
to  American  liberty. 

The  next  measure  adopted  by  Parliament  inimical  to 
the  colonies  was  the  act  of  1767  imposing  duties  on 
glass,  paper,  painters'  colors,  and  tea,  and  appointing  a 
commission  for  the  special  purpose  of  collecting  the 


70  JAMES  OTIS. 

revenues.     The  commissioners  so  appointed  were   to  re- 
side in  the  colonies. 

This  measure,  hardly  less  odious  than  the  Stamp  Act, 
was  strangely  enough  resisted  with  less  vehemence. 
Several  of  the  popular  leaders  were  disposed  to  counsel 
moderation.  Among  these  was  Otis  himself.  But  nearly 
all  outside  of  the  official  circles  were  united  against  the 
new  act.  They  formed  associations  and  signed  agree- 
ments not  to  use  any  of  the  articles  on  which  the  duty 
was  imposed.  This  was  equivalent  to  making  the  act  of 
no  effect. 

In  the  legislative  assembly  of  1768,  Mr.  Otis  was  ap- 
pointed with  Samuel  Adams  to  prepare  an  important 
paper  on  the  state  of  public  affairs.  This  they  did  by 
drawing  up  a  petition  which  has  been  regarded  as  one 
of  the  ablest  of  its  kind. 

There  is  some  controversy  as  to  who  actually  wrote 
this  famous  paper,  but  it  appears  to  have  been  done 
mostly  by  Mr.  Otis,  though  the  refining  hand  of  Samuel 
Adams  may  be  clearly  seen  in  the  style.  The  publication 
of  the  paper  still  further  strained  the  relations  between 
Governor  Bernard  and  the  representative  branch. 

Meanwhile,  the  news  of  the  assembling  of  the  Colon- 
ial Congress  in  New  York  had  produced  a  sensation  in 
England,  and  the  petition  of  the  Massachusetts  legisla- 
ture added  to  the  temper  of  the  ministry.  In  May  of 
1768,  Bernard  sent  to  the  assembly  a  requisition  that 
that  body  should  rescind  the  resolution  which  they  had 
passed  for  sending  a  circular  letter  to  the  other  colonies. 

To  this  Mr. Otis,  acting  for  the  assembly,  prepared  a  re- 


JAMES  OTIS.  71 

ply  which,  while  it  was  not  less  severe,  was  more  respect- 
ful and  concessive  than  were  most  of  his  communications. 
At  the  conclusion  he  says: 

"We  have  now  only  to  inform  your  Excellency,  that 
this  House  have  voted  not  to  rescind,  as  required,  the 
resolution  of  the  last  House;  and  that,  upon  a  division 
on  the  question,  there  were  ninety-two  nays  and  seven- 
teen yeas." 

In  this  manner  the  controversy  dragged  on  through 
the  years  1768-69,  but  in  the  summer  of  the  former  year 
an  event  occurred  which  roused  the  people  to  a  high 
pitch  of  excitement.  Some  of  the  custom-house  officers 
seized  a  vessel  belonging  to  John  Hancock.  For  this 
they  were  assailed  by  a  mob  which  burned  the  boat  of 
the  collector  of  customs.  The  officers  fled  to  the  castle. 
It  was  for  this  business  that  a  body  of  British  soldiers 
was  first  sent  to  Boston. 

On  the  1 2th  of  September,  1768,  a  great  meeting  was 
held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  but  the  crowd  was  such  as  to  make 
necessary  and  adjournment  to  Sewall's  Meeting-house. 
James  Otis  was  moderator  of  the  meeting.  The  pres- 
ence of  British  soldiers,  evidently  sent  to  Boston  to  en- 
force the  decrees  of  an  arbitrary  government,  was  suffi- 
cient to  bring  into  play  all  the  elements  of  patriotism. 

The  British  soldier's  coat  in  the  old  town  was  of  the 
same  color  as  the  scarf  which  the  picador  shakes  in  the 
face  of  the  enraged  animal !  The  effect  in  either  case 
was  the  same. 

At  the  meeting  just  mentioned,  Mr.  Otis  presided  and 
spoke.  A  report  of  what  occurred  was  written  (pre- 


72  JAMES  OTIS. 

sumptively  by  some  enemy  of  the  patriots),  and  was 
sent  as  a  report  to  the  British  ministry.  In  this  Otis 
was  charged  with  saying,  "In  case  Great  Britain  is  not 
disposed  to  redress  our  grievances  after  proper  applica- 
tion, the  people  have  nothing  more  to  do,  but  to  gird 


Interior  of  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston. 

the   sword    on   the  thigh    and   shoulder   the   musket." 
Doubtless  this  report  was  a  perversion  of  the  truth. 

Other  meetings  were  held,  and  resolutions  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  On  the  22nd  of  June,  Faneuil  Hall 
was  again  crowded.  James  Otis,  Thomas  Gushing,  Sam- 
uel Adams,  and  John  Hancock  were  selected  as  repre- 


OTIS.  73 

sentatives  to  meet  Committees  of  other  towns  in  a  con- 
vention. At  this  meeting  it  was  voted  that  the  people 
should  arm  themselves.  The  convention  met  with  dele- 
gates present  from  nearly  ninety  towns.  The  move- 
ment against  the  ministerial  scheme  had  already  become 
revolutionary. 

Meanwhile  in  1768,  the  general  assembly  was  uncere- 
moniously prorogued  by  Governor  Bernard,  but  in  May 
of  the  following  year,  the  body  was  re-convened.  On 
the  meeting  day  the  building  was  surrounded  with  Brit- 
ish troops. 

Otis  made  an  address,  declaring  that  free  legisla- 
tion would  be  impossible  in  the  presence  of  an  armed 
soldiery.  He  moved  the  appointment  of  a  commit- 
tee to  remonstrate  with  the  Governor,  and  to  request 
the  withdrawal  of  the  soldiers.  To  this  the  Governor 
replied  evasively  that  he  had  not  the  authority  to  order 
the  withdrawal  of  the  military.  Otis  in  answer  reported 
that  the  Governor's  reply  was  according  to  English  law, 
more  impossible  than  the  thing  which  the  Assembly  had 
petitioned  for. 

The  matter  resulted  in  the  adjournment  of  the  body 
to  meet  at  Cambridge,  in  the  chapel  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege. Assembled  at  that  place  the  legislature  was  ad- 
dressed by  Otis  with  impassioned  eloquence.  The  peo- 
ple as  well  as  the  legislators  were  gathered. 

"The  times  are  dark  and  trying,"  said  the  speaker. 
"We  may  soon  be  called  on  in  turn  to  act  or  to  suffer." 
"You,"  he  continued,  "should  study  and  emulate  the 
models  of  ancient  patriotism.  To  you  your  country 


74  JAMES  OTIS. 

may  one  day  look  for  support,  and  you  should  recollect 
that  the  noblest  of  all  duties  is  to  serve  that  country,  and 
if  necessary  to  devote  your  lives  in  her  cause." 

The  House  soon  prepared  a  paper  to  be  sent  to  the 
British  Ministry  denouncing  the  administration  of  Gov- 
ernor Bernard  and  protesting  against  the  further  presence 
of  a  British  Soldiery  in  Boston.  On  the  2;th  of  June, 
1769,  the  representatives  went  further  and  prepared  a  pe- 
tition, praying  for  the  removal  of  Bernard  from  the  gov- 
ernment. This  they  might  well  do  for  the  king  had  al- 
ready recalled  him! 

The  Governor  went  away  in  such  odor  as  the  breezes 
of  the  Old  Bay  have  hardly  yet  dissipated.  He  went 
away,  but  in  the  fall  added  his  compliments  to  the  Amer- 
icans by  the  publication  of  sundry  letters  in  which  they 
were  traduced  and  vilified.  To  this  James  Otis  and 
Samuel  Adams,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  reply. 
They  did  so  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "An  Appeal  to  the 
World,  or  a  Vindication  of  the  Town  of  Boston,"  etc. 

It  was  in  these  tumultuous  and  honorable  labors  and 
excitements  extending  over  a  period  of  fully  ten  years 
that  the  intellect  of  James  Otis  became  overstrained  and, 
at  length,  warped  from  its  purpose. 

We  may  regard  his  rational  career  as  ending  with 
the  year  1769.  In  September  of  this  year  it  was  noticed 
that  he  had  become  excitable,  and  that  his  natural 
eccentricity  was  accented  at  times  to  the  extent  of  ren- 
dering his  conduct  irrational,  -x 

It  was  at  this  time  that  he  published  in  the  Boston 
"Gazette"  what  he  called  an  advertisement,  in  which 


JAMES  OTIS.  75 

he  placarded  the  four  commissioners  of  customs,  on 
the  ground  that  they  had  assailed  his  character,  de- 
claring that  they  had  formed  a  confederacy  of  vil- 
lainy, and  warning  the  officers  of  the  crown  to  pay  no 
attention  to  them. 

On  the  evening  of  the  following  day,  Mr.  Otis  went 
into   a   coffee-house  where  John  Robinson,  one  of  the 


Fac-simile  of  an  Extract  from  a  letter  written  by  James  Otis  to  Arthur  Jones, 
Nov.  26,  1768. 

commissioners  whom  he  had  lampooned,  was  sitting. 
On  entering  the  room,  Mr.  Otis  was  attacked  by  Robin- 
son who  struck  him  with  his  cane.  Otis  struck  back. 
There  was  a  battle.  Those  who  were  present  were 
Robinson's  friends.  The  fight  became  a  melee. 

A  young  man  named  Gridley  undertook  to  assist  Otis, 
'but  was  himself  overpowered  and  pitched  out  of  the  house. 
Mr.  Otis  was  seriously  wounded  in  the  head,  and  was 
taken  to  his  house,  bleeding  and  exhausted.  The  prin- 
cipal wound  appeared  to  have  been  inflicted  with  a 


76  JAMES  OTIS. 

sword;  it  was  in  the  nature  of  a  cut,  and  an  empty  scab- 
bard was  found  on  the  floor  of  the  room  in  which  the 
altercation  occurred. 

On  the  morrow,  Boston  was  aflame  with  excitement. 
Otis  was  seriously  injured;  in  fact  he  never_j:ecovered 
from  the  effects  of  the  assault.  He  brought  suit  against 
Robinson,  and  a  jury  gave  a  judgment  of  two  thousand 
pounds  damages  against  the  defendant.  The  latter  arose 
in  court  with  a  writing  of  open  confession  and  apology, 
and  hereupon  the  spirited  and  generous  Otis  refused  to 
avail  himself  of  the  verdict. 

Could  he  have  thrown  off  the  effects  of  the  injury  in 
like  manner,  his  last  years  might  have  been  a  happier 
sequel  to  a  useful  and  patriotic  life. 

During  the  sessions  of  the  Assembly,  in  the  years 
1770  and  1771,  James  Otis  retained  his  membership,  but 
the  mental  disease  which  afflicted  him  began  to  grow 
worse,  and  he  participated  only  at  intervals  (and  eccen- 
trically) in  the  business  of  legislation. 

In  May  of  1770,  a  town  meeting  was  held  in  Boston, 
and  a  resolution  of  thanks  was  passed  to  the  distin- 
guished representative  for  his  services  in  the  General 
Assembly.  This  was  on  the  occasion  of  his  retirement 
into  the  country,  in  the  hope  of  regaining  his  health. 
At  the  close,  the  resolution  declared: 

"The  town  cannot,  but  express  their  ardent  wishes  for 
the  recovery  of  his  (Mr.  Otis's)  health,  and  the  continu- 
ance of  those  public  services,  that  must  long  be  remem- 
bered with  gratitude,  and  distinguish  his  name  among 
the  patriots  of  America. ' ' 


JAMES  OTIS.  77 

From  this  time  forth  the  usefulness  of  James  Otis  was 
virtually  at  an  end.  In  the  immortal  drama  on  which 
the  curtain  was  rising — the  drama  of  Liberty  and  Inde- 
pendence— he  was  destined  to  take  no  part.  The  pre- 
revolutionist  in  eclipse  must  give  place  to  the  Revolution- 
ist who  was  rising.  John  Adams  came  after,  not  wholly 
by  his  own  ambition,  but  at  the  call  of  inexorable  History, 
to  take  the  part  and  place  of  the  great  Forerunner. 

What  must  have  been  the  thoughts  and  emotions  of 
that  Forerunner  when  the  minute  men  of  Massachusetts 
came  firing  and  charging  after  the  British  soldiers  in  full 
retreat  from  Concord  Bridge  and  Lexington?  With  what 
convulsion  must  his  mind,  in  semi-darkness  and  ruin, 
have  received  the  news  of  the  still  greater  deed  at  Bunk- 
er Hill?  History  is  silent  as  to  what  the  broken  Titan 
thought  and  said  in  those  heroic  days. 

The  patriot  in  dim  eclipse  became  at  times  wholly  ra- 
tional,but  with  the  least  excitement  his  malady  would  re- 
turn. In  conversation  something  of  his  old  brilliancy 
would  return  in  flashes.  For  the  rest,  the  chimes  in 
that  high  soul  no  longer  played  the  music  of  reason,  but 
gave  out  only  the  discords  of  insanity.  He  was  never 
reduced  to  serious  delirium  or  to  violent  frenzy,  but  he 
was  an  insane  man;  and  under  this  shadow  he  walked 
for  the  greater  part  of  ten  years,  during  which  Indepen- 
dence was  declared  and  the  Revolution  fought  out  to  a 
victorious  end. 

It  was  in  this  period  of  decline  and  obscuration  that 
James  Otis  witnessed  through  the  gathering  shadows  the 
rise  to  distinction  and  fame  of  many  of  the  patriots 


78  JAMES  OTIS. 

whom  he  had  led  in  the  first  campaigns  for  liberty. 
John  Adams  and  Hancock  were  now  at  the  fore  battling 
for  independence.  Among  those  who  rose  to  eminence 
in  the  immortal  eighth  decade  was  Samuel  Alleyne  Otis, 
who  in  1776  was  elected  a  representative  in  the  great 
Congress  of  the  Revolution.  James  did  not  live  to  see 
his  brother  become  speaker  of  the  House,  but  he  wit- 
nessed in  1780  his  service  as  a  member  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  Massacnusetts.  Afterward,  in  1787, 
he  was  a  commissioner  to  negotiate  a  settlement  with 
the  participants  in  Shay's  Rebellion.  With  the  organi- 
zation of  the  new  national  government  he  became  Sec- 
retary of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  served  in 
that  capacity  until  his  death,  April  22,  1814. 

In  1781,  Mr.  Otis  was  taken  by  his  friend,  Colonel 
Samuel  Osgood,  to  the  home  of  the  latter  in  Andover. 
There  the  enfeebled  patriot  passed  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  He  became  very  obese,  and  his  nervous  excitabil- 
ity to  an  extent  subsided. 

He  was  amiable  and  interesting  to  his  friends^  His 
health  was  in  some  measure  restored,  but  his  intellectual 
strength  did  not  return.  He  thought  of  going  back  to 
Boston,  and  in  one  instance  he  accepted  and  conducted 
a  case  in  the  court  of  Common  Pleas;  but  his  manner 
was  that  of  a  paretic  giant. 

The  favorable  turn  in  Mr.  Otis's  condition  was  at 
length  arrested  by  an  attempt  on  his  part  to  dine  with 
Governor  Hancock.  At  the  dinner  he  was  observed  to 
become  first  sad  and  then  to  waver  into  mental  occulta- 
tion.  He  was  taken  by  his  brother,  Hon.  Samuel  Al- 


o 

H 

a. 
o 


"3    3 


£.D  ° 

rs  3"  £* 

art  - 

^  8  <?* 
—  -i  -i 


:- 


*§         § 

cr  ~ 


. 

Qiq    — 

" 


=   2. 

-1     3 

O  oq 


8o  JAMES  OTIS. 

leyne  Otis,  to  Andover.     The  event   convinced  the  suf- 
ferer that  the  end  of  his  life  was  not  distant. 

Strange,  strange  are  the  foregleams  of  the  things  to 
come!  On  one  occasion  he  said  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  War- 
ren, "I  hope  when  God  Almighty  in  his  Providence  shall 
take  me  out  of  time  into  eternity,  it  will  be  by  a  flash  of 
lightning!"  The  tradition  goes  that  he  frequently  gave 
expression  to  this  wish.  Did  the  soul  foresee  the  manner 
of  its  exit? 

A  marvelous  and  tragic  end  was  indeed  at  hand.  On 
the  23d  of  May,  1783,  only  a  few  months  before  the 
Briton  left  our  shores  never  to  return  but  by  the  coiir- 
tesy  of  the  Republic,  a  thundercloud,  such  as  the  season 
brings  in  New  England,  passed  over  Andover. 

James  Otis  stood  against  the  lintel  of  the  door  watch- 
ing the  commotion  of  the  elements.  There  was  a  crash 
of  thunder.  The  lightning,  serpent-like,  darted  from 
heaven  to  earth  and  passed  through  the  body  of  the 
patriot!  Instantly  he  was  dead. 

There  was  no  mark  upon  him;  no  contortion  left 
its  snarling  twist  on  the  placid  features  of  him  who 
had  contributed  so  much  of  genius  and  patriotic  fire 
to  the  freedom  and  future  greatness  of  his  country — 
so  much  to  the  happiness  of  his  countrymen. 

On  the  24th  of  the  month  the  body  of  Mr.  Otis  was 
taken  to  Boston  and  was  placed  in  modest  state  in  his 
former  home.  The  funeral  on  the  25th  was  conducted 
by  the  Brotherhood  of  Free  and  Accepted  .Masons  to 
which  Mr.  Otis  belonged.  The  sepulture  was  made,  as 
narrated  in  the  first  pages  of  this  monograph,  in  the  Cun- 


JAMES  OTIS.  81 

ningham  tomb  in  the  Old  Granary  Burying  Ground.  In 
that  tomb,  also  was  laid  six  years  afterwards,  the  body  of 
Ruth  Cunningham  Otis,  his  wife.  Out  of  this  brief  nar- 


Grave  of  James  Otis  in  the  old  Granary  Burying  Ground,  Boston. 
(From  a  photograph  by  Charles  Pollock,  Boston.) 

rative  of  a  great  life,  let  each  reader  for  himself  deduce 
as  he  may,  the  inspiration  and  purpose,  without  which 
American  citizenship  is  no  better  than  some  other. 

Since  the  first  pages  of  this  monograph  were  written  (in  March, 
1898,)  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution  have  marked  the  grave 
of  James  Otis  with  a  bronze  reproduction  of  their  armorial  badge,  and 
a  small  tablet,  as  seen  in  the  illustration  on  this  page. 


82  JAMES  OTIS. 

-  ANECDOTES  AND  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  OTIS,  ETC, 

OTIS   AND    HIS   FELLOW   PATRIOTS. 

Professor  Hosmer  draws  the  following-  pictures  of  Otis 
and  his  con  temporaries: 

"The  splendid  Otis,  whose  leadership  was  at  first  un- 
questioned, was  like  the  huge  cannon  on  the  man-of-war, 
in  Victor  Hugo's  story,  that  had  broken  from  its  moor- 
ings in  the  storm,'  and  become  a  terror  to  those  whom  it 
formerly  defended.  He  was  indeed  a  great  gun,  from 
whom  in  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act  had  been ,sent  the 
most  powerful  bolts  against  unconstitutional  oppression. 
With  lashings  parted,  however,  as  the  storm  grew  vio- 
lent he  plunged  dangerously  from  side  to  side,  almost 
sinking  the  ship,  all  the  more  an  object  to  dread  from 
the  calibre  that  had  once  made  him  so  serviceable.  It 
was  a  melancholy  sight,  and  yet  a  great  relief,  when  his 
friends  saw  him  at  last  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  car- 
ried into  retirement. 

"Bowdoin,  also,  was  not  firm  in  health,  and  though 
most  active  and  useful  in  the  Council,  had  thus  far  done 
little  elsewhere.  Hawley,  far  in  the  interior,  was  often 
absent  from  the  centre  in  critical  times,  and  somewhat 
unreliable  through  a  strange  moodiness.  Gushing  was 
weak.  Hancock  was  hampered  by  foibles  that  some- 
times quite  canceled  his  merits.  Quincy  was  a  brilliant 
youth,  and,  like  a  youth,  sometimes  fickle.  We  have 
seen  him  ready  to  temporize,  when  to  falter  was  destruc- 
tion, as  at  the  time  of  the  casting  over  of  the  tea;  again 
in  unwise  fervor,  he  would  counsel  assassination  as  a 


JAMES  OTIS.  83 

proper  expedient.    Warren,  too,  could  rush  into  extremes 
of  rashness  and  ferocity,  wishing  that   he  might  wade 
to    the    knees   in 
blood,    and    had 
just  reached  sober, 
self-reliant    man- 
hood when  he  was 
taken  off. 

"John  Adams 
showed  only  an 
intermittent  zeal 
in  the  public 
cause  until  the 
preliminary  work 
was  done,  and 
BenjaminChurch, 
half-hearted  and 
venal,  early  be- 
gan the  double- 
dealing  which  was 
to  bring  him  to  a 
traitor's  end.  There  was  need  in  this  group  of  a  man  of 
sufficient  ascendency,  thorough  intellect  and  character, 
to  win  deference  from  all — wise  enough  to  see  always  the 
supreme  end,  to  know  what  each  instrument  was  fit  for, 
and  to  bring  all  forces  to  bear  in  the  right  way — a  man 
of  consummate  adroitness,  to  sail  in  torpedo-sown  waters 
without  exciting  an  explosion,  though  conducting  wires 
of  local  prejudice,  class  sensitiveness,  and  personal  foible 
on  every  hand  led  straight  down  to  magazines  of  wrath 


Joseph  Warren. 


84  JAMES  OTIS. 

which  might  shatter  the  cause  in  a  moment— a  man 
having  resources  of  his  own  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
could  supplement  from  himself  what  was  wanting  in 
others— always  awake,  though  others  might  want  to 
sleep,  always  at  work  though  others  might  be  tired — a 
man  devoted,  without  thought  of  personal  gain  or  fame, 
simply  and  solely  to  the  public  cause.  Such  a  man  there 
was,  and  his  name  was  Samuel  Adams." 

OTIS    AND    ADAMS. 

•  Professor  Hosmer  thus  compares  Otis  and  Adams: 
"Otis'  power  was  so  magnetic  that  a  Boston  town 
meeting,  upon  liis  mere  entering,  would  break  out  into 
shouts  and  clapping,  and  if  he  spoke  he  produced  effects 
which  may  be  compared  with  the  sway  exercised  by 
Chatham,  whom  as  an  orator  he  much  resembled.  Long 
after  disease  had  made  him  utterly  untrustworthy,  his 
spell  remained.  He  brought  the  American  cause  to  the 
brink  of  min,  because  the  people  would  follow  him, 
though  he  was  shattered. 

"Of  this  gift  Samuel  Adams  possessed  little.  He  was 
always  in  speech,  straightforward  and  sensible,  and  upon 
occasion  could  be  impressive,  but  his  endowment  was 
not  that  of  the  mouth  of  gold. 

"While  Otis  was  fitful,  vacillating  and  morbid,  Sam- 
uel Adams  was  persistent,  undeviating,  and  sanity  itself. 
While  Samuel  Adams  never  abated  by  a  hair  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  British  policy,  James  Otis,  who  at  the  outset 
had  given  the  watch-word  to  the  patriots,  later,  after 
Parliament  had  passed  the  Stamp  Act,  said: 


JAMES  OTIS.  85 

u  'It  is  the  duty  of  all  humbly  and  silently  to  acquiesce 
in  all  the  decisions  of  the  supreme  legislature.  Nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  in  a  thousand  will  never  enter- 
tain the  thought  but  of  submission  to  our  sovereign,  and 
to  the  authority  of  Parliament  in  all  possible  contin- 
gencies.' " 

OTIS   AS   AN   AUTHOR. 

In  1762,  a  pamphlet  appeared,  bearing  the  following 
title:  "A  Vindication  of  the  Conduct  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  of  the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay:  more  particularly  in  the  last  session  of  the  General 
Assembly.  By  James  Otis,  Esq.,  a  Member  of  said 
House. 

"Let  such,  such  only,  tread  this  sacred  floor, 
Who  dare  to  love  their  country  and  be  poor. 
Or  good  though  rich,  humane  and  wise  though  great, 
Jove  give  but  these,  we've  naught  to  fear  from  fate. 

Boston,  printed  by  Edes  and  Gill." 

Instead  of  copious  quotations  from  this  patriotic  work, 
we  present  the  following  judgment  upon  its  merits  by 
one  best  qualified  to  estimate  its  worth.  "How  many 
volumes,"  says  John  Adams,  "are  concentrated  in  this 
little  fugitive  pamphlet,  the  production  of  a  few  hurried 
hours,  amidst  the  continual  solicitation  of  a  crowd  of 
clients;  for  his  business  at  the  bar  at  that  time  was  very 
extensive,  and  of  the  first  importance,  and  amidst  the 
host  of  politicians,  suggesting  their  plans  and  schemes! 

"Look  over  the  Declarations  of  Rights  and  Wrongs 
issued  by  Congress  in  1774. 


86  JAMES  OTIS. 

"Look  into  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776. 

"Look  into  the  writings  of  Dr.  Price  and  Dr.  Priestley. 

"Look  into  all  the  French  constitutions  of  govern- 
ment; and  to  cap  the  climax,  look  into  Mr.  Thomas 
Paine' s  'Common  Sense,  Crisis,  and  Rights  of  Man;'  what 
can  you  find  that  is  not  to  be  found  in  solid  substance  in 
this  Vindication  of  the  House  of  Representatives?" 

THE  TOWN    MEETING. 

Another  important  feature  in  the  unfolding  of  our 
free  institutions,  was  the  system  of  town  meetings  which 
began  to  be  held  as  early  as  1767. 

"The  chief  arena  of  James  Otis'  and  Sam  Adams'  in- 
fluence," as  Governor  Hutchinson  wrote  to  Lord  Dart- 
mouth, "was  the  town  meeting,  that  Olympian  race- 
course of  the  Yankee  athlete." 

Writing  to  Samuel  Adams  in  1790  John  Adams,  look- 
ing back  to  the  effect  of  these  events,  says: 

"Your  Boston  town  meetings  and  our  Harvard  Col- 
lege have  set  the  universe  in  motion."' 

One  held  in  October  of  1767  was  presided  over  by 
James  Otis,  and  was  called  to  resist  new  acts  of  British 
aggression  on  colonial  rights.  On  September  12,  1768, 
a  town  meeting  was  held,  which  was  opened  with  a 
prayer  by  Dr.  Cooper.  Otis  was  chosen  moderator. 

The  petition  for  calling  the  meeting  requested,  that 
inquiry  should  be  made  of  his  Excellency,  for  "the 
grounds  and  reasons  of  sundry  declarations  made  by  him, 
that  three  regiments  might  be  daily  expected,"  etc. 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  wait  upon  the  govern- 


•JAMES  OTIS.  87 

or,  urging  him  in  the  present  critical  state  of  affairs  to 
issue  precepts  for  a  general  assembly  of  trie  province,  to 
take  suitable  measures  for  the  preservation  of  their 


Liberty  Square,  Boston,  as  it  appears  at  the  present  time. 

rights  and  privileges;  and  that  he  should  be  requested  to 
favor  the  town  with  an  immediate  answer. 

In  October  several  ship-loads  of  troops  arrive. 

The  storm  thickens. 

Another  town  meeting  is  called,  and  it  is  voted  that 
the  several  ministers  of  the  Gospel  be  requested  to  ap- 
point the  next  Tuesday  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer. 


88  JAMES  OTIS. 

The  day  arrives,  and  the  place  of  meeting  is  crowded  by 
committees  from  sixty-two  towns. 

They  petition  the  governor  to  call  a  General  Court. 
Otis  appeared  in  behalf  of  the  people,  under  circum- 
stances that  strongly  attest  his  heroism. 

Cannon  were  planted  at  the  entrance  of  the  building, 
and  a  body  of  troops  were  quartered  in  the  representa- 
tives' chamber. 

After  the  court  was  opened,  Otis  rose,  and  moved  that 
they  should  adjourn  to  Faneuil  Hall. 

With  a  significant  expression  of  loathing  and  scorn, 
he  observed,  "that  the  stench  occasioned  by  the  troops  in 
the  hall  of  legislation  might  prove  infectious,  and  that 
it  was  utterly  derogatory  to  the  court  to  administer  jus- 
tice at  the  points  of  bayonets  and  mouths  of  cannon." 

JAMES   OTIS   AT   THE   BATTLE   OF   BUNKER    HILL. 

In  the  sketch  of  the  life  of  James  Otis,  as  presented  in 
AppletonVCyclopedia  of  American  Biography,"an  inter- 
esting account  is  given  of  the  part  James  Otis  played  in 
the  noted  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  in  June,  1/75. 

The  minute  men  who,  hastening  to  the  front,  passed 
by  the  house  of  the  sister  of  James  Otis,  with  whom  he 
was  living,  at  Watertown,  Mass. 

At  this  time  he  was  harmlessly  insane,  and  did  not 
need  special  watching. 

But,  as  he  saw  the  patriotic  farmers  hurrying  by  and 
heard  of  the  rumor  of  the  impending  conflict,  he  was 
suddenly  seized  with  a  martial  spirit.  Without  saying 
a  word  to  a  single  soul,  he  slipped  away  unobserved  and 


JAMES  OTIS. 


89 


hurried  on  towards  Boston, 
a  farmhouse  and  borrowed 
seemingly  in  his 
mental  derangement, 
ket  upon  his  shoul- 
and  was  soon  joined 
coming  from  various 
in"  with  them,  he 
in  that  eventful  con- 
closed  in  upon  the 
wearied  beyond  des- 
was,  he  set  out  for 
He  afterwards  pur- 
aimless  life,  as 
usual  had  occurred. 


On  the  roadside  he  stopped  at 
a  musket,  there  being  nothing 
manner  to  suggest 
Throwing  the  mus- 
der  he  hastened  on, 
by  the  minute  men 
directions.  "Falling 
took  an  active  part 
test  until  darkness 
combatants.  Then, 
cription,  though  he 
home  after  midnight, 
sued  his  sad  and 
though  nothing  un- 


Bunker  Hill  Monument,  Charleston,  Mass. 


go  JAMES  OTIS. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF  BUNKER  HILL. 

Two  days  before  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  Washing- 
ton had  been  appointed  by  the  Continental  Congress 
Commander  in  Chief. 

The  news  of  the  battle  was  brought.  Foreseeing  the 
significance  of  the  result  he  said,  "The  liberties  of  the 
country  are  safe." 

Four  days  afterward  Thomas  Jefferson  entered  Con- 
gress and  the  next  day  news  was  brought  of  the  Char- 
lestown  conflict.  "This  put  fire  into  his  ideal  states- 
manship." Patrick  Henry  hearing  of  it  said,  "I  am 
glad  of  it;  a  breach  of  our  affections  was  needed  to  rouse 
the  country  to  action." 

Franklin  wrote  to  his  English  friends:  "England  has 
lost  her  colonies  forever.'' 

THE   ANCESTORS   OF   JAMES   OTIS. 

Carlyle  says:  "I  never  knew  a  clever  man  who  came 
out  of  entirely  stupid  people."  James  Otis' s  great  qual- 
ities "were  an  inheritance,  not  an  accident,  and  inheri- 
tance from  the  best  blood  of  old  England."  Many  years 
ago,  when  George  Ticknor  of  Boston  was  a  guest  of 
Lady  Holland,  at  the  famous  Holland  House,  in  London, 
her  ladyship  remarked  to  him,  in  her  not  very  engaging 
way: 

"I  understand,  Mr.  Ticknor,  that  Massachusetts  was 
settled  by  convicts." 

"Indeed,"  said  Mr.  Ticknor,  "I  thought  I  was  some- 
what familiar  with  the  history  of  my  State,  but  I  was 
not  aware  that  what  you  say  was  the  case," 


JAMES  OTIS.  91 

"But,"  he  continued,  "I  do  now  remember  that  some 
of  your  ladyship's  ancestors  settled  in  Boston,  for  there 
is  a  monument  to  one  of  them  in  King's  Chapel." 

James  Otis  inherited  that  sturdy  New  England  pride 
which  puts  manhood  above  dukedoms  and  coronets. 

"A  king  may  make  a  belted  knight, 

A  marquis,  duke  and  a'  that, 

But  an  honest  man's  aboon  his  might." 

From  a  race  of  the  true  kings  of  men  he  was  descend- 
ed, who  conquered  out  of  the  jaws  of  the  wilderness  the 
priceless  inheritance  of  American  privilege  and  freedom. 
And  while  kings  at  home  were  trying  to  crush  out  the 
liberties  of  their  subjects,  or  were  dallying  with  wantons 
in  the  palaces  built  out  of  the  unrequited  toil  of  the 
long-suffering  and  downtrodden  people,  these  men  of 
iron  were  the  pioneers  of  American  civilization,  at  a 
time,  which  Holmes  so  graphically  describes: 

"When  the  crows  came  cawing  through  the  air 

To  pluck  the  Pilgrim's  corn, 
And  bears  came  snuffing  round  the  door 

Whene'er  a  babe  was  born; 
And  rattlesnakes  were  bigger  round 

Than  the  butt  of  the  old  ram's  horn 
The  deacon  blew  at  meeting  time, 

On  every  Sabbath  morn." 

COL.    BARRE   ON  JAMES  OTIS. 

Iii  the  debate  on  the  Boston  Port  Bill  in  Parliament, 
April  1 5th,  1774,  Colonel  Barre  referred  to  the  ruffianly 
attack  made  on  Mr.  Otis,  and  his  treatment  of  the  in- 
jury, in  a  manner  that  reflects  honor  on  both  of  the  ora- 
tors. 


92  JAMES  OTIS. 

"Is  this  the  return  you  make  them?"  inquired  the  Brit- 
ish statesman. 

"When  a  commissioner  of  the  customs,  aided  by  a 
number  of  ruffians,  assaulted  the  celebrated  Mr.  Otis,  in 
the  midst  of  the  town  of  Boston,  and  with  the  most  bar- 
barous violence  almost  murdered  him,  did  the  mob, 
which  is  said  to  rule  that  town,  take  vengeance  on  the 
perpetrators  of  this  inhuman  outrage  against  a  person 
who  is  supposed  to  be  their  demagogue? 

"No,  sir,  the  law  tried  them,  the  law  gave  heavy  dam- 
ages against  them,  which  the  irreparably  injured  Mr. 
Otis  most  generously  forgave,  upgn  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  offence. 

"Can  you  expect  any  more  such  instances  of  magnan- 
imity under  the  principle  of  the  Bill  now  proposed?" 

THE  GENEROSITY   OF   OTIS. 

He  was  distinguished  for  generosity  to  both  friends 
and  foes.  Governor  Hutchinson  said  of  him:  "that  he 
never  knew  fairer  or  more  noble  conduct  in  a  speaker, 
than  in  Otis;  that  he  always  disdained  to  take  advan- 
tage of  any  clerical  error,  or  similar  inadvertence,  but 
passed  over  minor  points,  and  defended  his  causes  solely 
on  their  broad  and  substantial  foundations." 

JOHN    ADAMS   ON    OTIS. 

But  in  that  contest  over  the  "Writs  of  Assistance," 
there  was  something  nobler  exhibited  than  superiority 
to  mercenary  consideration. 

"It  was,"  says  the  venerable  President,  John  Adams, 


JAMES  OTIS.  93 

"a  moral  spectacle  more  affecting  tome  than  any  I  have 
since  seen  upon  the  stage,  to  observe  a  pupil  treating 
his  master  with  all  the  deference,  respect,  esteem,  and 
affection  of  a  son  to  a  father,  and  that  without  the  least 
affectation;  while  he  baffled  and  confounded  all  his 
authorities,  confuted  all  his  arguments,  and  reduced  him 
to  silence  ! 

"The  crown,  by  its  agents,  accumulated  construction 
upon  construction,  and  inference  upon  inference,  as  the 
giants  heaped  Pelion  upon  Ossa;  but  Otis,  like  Jupiter, 
dashed  this  whole  building  to  pieces,  and  scattered  the 
pulverized  atoms  to  the  four  winds;  and  no  judge,  law- 
yer, or  crown  officer  dared  to  say,  why  do  ye  so? 

"He  raised  such  a  storm  of  indignation,  that  even 
Hutchinson,  who  had  been  appointed  on  purpose  to 
sanction  this  writ,  dared  not  utter  a  word  in  its  favor, 
and  Mr.  Gridley  himself  seemed  to  me  to  exult  inwardly 
at  the  glory  and  triumph  of  his  pupil." 

OTIS  COMPARED  WITH  RANDOLPH. 

"The  wit  exemplified  by  Mr.  Otis  in  debate,"  says  Dr. 
Magoon,  uwas  often  keen  but  never  malignant,  as  in 
John  Randolph.  The  attacks  of  the  latter  were  often 
fierce  and  virulent,  not  unfrequently  in  an  inverse  pro- 
portion to  the  necessity  of  the  case. 

"He  would  yield  himself  up  to  a  blind  and  passionate 
obstinacy,  and  lacerate  his  victims  for  no  apparent  reas- 
on but  the  mere  pleasure  of  inflicting  pangs. 

"In  this  respect,  the  orator  of  Roanoke  resembled  the 
Sicilian  tyrant  whose  taste  for  cruelty  led  him  to  seek 


Q4  JAMES  OTIS. 

recreation  in  putting  insects  to  the  torture.  If  such  men 
cannot  strike  strong  blows,  they  know  how  to  fight  with 
poisonous  weapons;  thus  by  their  malignity,  rather  than 
by  their  honorable  skill,  they  can  bring  the  noblest  an- 
tagonist to  the  ground. 

"But  Mr.Otis  pursued  more  dignified  game  and  with  a 
loftier  purpose. 

"He  indeed  possessed  a  Swiftian  gift  of  sarcasm,  but, 
unlike  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's,  and  the  forensic  gladia- 
tor alluded  to  above,  he  never  employed  it  in  a  spirit  of 
hatred  and  contempt  towards  the  mass  of  mankind. 

"Such  persons  should  remember  the  words  of  Colton, 
that,  'Strong  and  sharp  as  our  wit  may  be,  it  is  not  so 
strong  as  the  memory  of  fools,  nor  so  keen  as  their  re- 
sentment; he  that  has  strength  of  mind  to  forgive,  is  by 
no  means  weak  enough  to  forget;  and  it  is  much  more 
easy  to  do  a  cruel  thing  than  to  say  a  severe  one.'" 

ORATORICAL   POWER. 

Many  of  the  most  effective  orators,  of  all  ages,  have 
not  been  most  successful  in  long  and  formal  efforts.  Nor 
have  they  always  been  close  and  ready  debaters.  "Sud- 
den bursts  which  seemed  to  be  the  effect  of  inspiration — 
short  sentences  which  came  like  lightning,  dazzling, 
burning,  striking  down  everything  before  them — sen- 
tences which,  spoken  at  critical  moments,  decided  the 
fate  of  great  questions — sentences  which  at  once  became 
proverbs — sentences  which  everybody  still  knows  by 
heart"  — in  these  chiefly  lay  the  oratorical  power  of 
Mirabeau  and  Chatham,  Patrick  Henry  and  James  Otis. 

— E.  L.  Magoon. 


JAMES  OTIS.  95 

THE    ELOQUENCE   OF   OTIS. 

.  Otis  was  naturally  elevated  in  thought,  and  dwelt 
with  greatest  delight  in  the  calm  contemplation  of  the 
lofty  principles  which  should  govern  political  and  moral 
conduct. 

And  yet  he  was  keenly  suspectible  to  excitement. 
His  intellect  explored  the  wilderness  of  the  universe  on- 
ly to  increase  the  discontent  of  those  noble  aspirations  of 
his  soul  which  were  never  at  rest. 

In  early  manhood  he  was  a  close  student,  but  as  he 
advanced  in  age  he  became  more  and  more  absorbed  in 
public  action. 

As  ominous  storms  threatened  the  common  weal,  he 
found  less  delight  in  his  library  than  in  the  stern  strife 
of  the  forum. 

As  he  prognosticated  the  coming  tempest  and  com- 
prehended its  fearful  issue,  he  became  transformed  in 
aspect  like  one  inspired.  His  appearance  in  public  al- 
ways commanded  prompt  and  profound  attention;  he 
both  awed  and  delighted  the  multitudes  whom  his  bold 
wisdom  so  opportunely  fortified. 

"Old  South,"  the  "Old  Court  House,"  and  the 
"Cradle  of  Liberty,"  in  Boston,  were  familiar  with  his 
eloquence,  that  resounded  like  a  cheerful  clarion  in 
"days  that  tried  men's  souls."  It  was  then  that  his 
great  heart  and  fervid  intellect  wrought  with  disinterest- 
ed and  noble  zeal;  his  action  became  vehement,  and 
his  eyes  flashed  with  unutterable  fire;  his  voice,  distinct, 
melodious,  swelling,  and  increasing  in  height  and  depth 
with  each  new  and  bolder  sentiment,  filled,  as  with  the 


g6  JAMES  OTIS. 

palpable  presence  of  a  deity,  the  shaking  walls.  The 
listeners  became  rapt  and  impassioned  like  the  speaker, 
till  their  very  breath  forsook  them. 

He  poured  forth  a  uflood  of  argument  and  passion" 
which  achieved  the  sublimest  earthly  good,  and  happily 
exemplified  the  description  which  Percival  has  given  of 
indignant  patriotism  expressed  in  eloquence: 

"Its  words 

Are  few,  but  deep  and  solemn;  and  they  break 
Fresh  from  the  fount  of  feeling,  and  are  full 
Of  all  that  passion,  which,  on  Carmel,  fired 
The  holy  prophet,  when  his  lips  were  coals, 
The  language  winged  with  terror,  as  when  bolts 
Leap  from  the  brooding  tempest,  armed  with  wrath, 
Commissioned  to  affright  us,  and  destroy." — E.  L.  Magoon. 

OTIS  COMPARED  WITH  AMERICAN  ORATORS. 

"His  eloquence,like  that  of  his  distinguished  successors, 
was  marked  by  a  striking  individuality. 

"It  did  not  partake  largely  of  the  placid  firmness  of 
Samuel  Adams;  or  of  the  intense  brilliancy  and  exquis- 
ite taste  of  the  younger  Quincy;  or  the  subdued  and 
elaborate  beauty  of  Lee;  or  the  philosophical  depth  of 
John  Adams;  or  the  rugged  and  overwhelming  energy 
of  Patrick  Henry;  though  he,  most  of  all  Americans,  re- 
sembled the  latter." — E.  L.  Magoon. 

OTIS  COMPARED  WITH  ENGLISH  ORATORS. 

"Compared  with  English  orators,"  Dr.  Magoon  says, 
"our  great  countryman  was  not  unlike  Sheridan  in  nat- 
ural endowment. 

"Like  him,  he  was  unequaled  in  impassioned  appeals 
to  the  general  heart  of  mankind. 


JAMES  OTIS.  97 

"He  swayed  all  by  his  electric  fire;  charmed  the  timid, 
and  inspired  the  weak;  subdued  the  haughty,  and  en- 
thralled the  prejudiced. 

"He  traversed  the  field  of  argument  and  invective  as  a 
Scythian  warrior  scours  the  plain,  shooting  most  deadly 
arrows  when  at  the  greatest  speed. 

"He  rushed  into  forensic  battle,  fearless  of  all  conse- 
quences; and  as  the  ancient  war-chariot  would  some- 
times set  its  axle  on  fire  by  the  rapidity  of  its  own  move- 
ment, so  would  the  ardent  soul  of  Otis  become  ignited 
and  fulminate  with  thought,  as  he  swept  irresistibly  to 
the  goal. 

"When  aroused  by  some  great  crisis,  his  eloquent  words 
were  like  bolts  of  granite  heated  in  a  volcano,  and  shot 
forth  with  unerring  aim,  crashing  where  they  fell." 

PHYSICAL   APPEARANCE. 

In  respect  to  physical  ability,  Otis  was  happily  en- 
dowed. One  who  knew  him  well  has  recorded,  that  "he 
was  finely  formed,  and  had  an  intelligent  countenance: 
his  eye,  voice,  and  manner  were  very  impressive. 

"The  elevation  of  his  mind,  and  the  known  integrity 
of  his  purposes,  enabled  him  to  speak  with  decision  and 
dignity,  and  commanded  the  respect  as  well  as  the  ad- 
miration of  his  audience. 

"His  eloquence  showed  but  little  imagination,  yet  it 
was  instinct  with  the  fire  of  passion. " 

"It  may  be  not  unjustly  said  of  Otis,  as  of  Judge  Mar- 
shall, that  he  was  one  of  those  rare  beings  that  seem 
to  be  sent  among  men  from  time  to  time,  to  keep  alive 
our  faith  in  humanity. 


98  JAMES  OTIS. 

"He  had  a  wonderful  power  over  the  popular  feelings, 
but  he  employed  it  only  for  great  public   benefits.     He 
seems  to  have  said  to   himself,   in  the  language  of  the 
great  master  of  the  maxims  of  life  and  conduct: 
"This  above  all, — to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

PORTRAIT   OF   OTIS. 

The  portrait  of  James  Otis,  Jr.,  published  as  a  frontis- 
piece to  this  sketch,  is  from  the  oil-painting  loaned  to 
the  Bostonian  Society,  by  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  of  Win- 
throp,  Massachusetts.  The  painting  from  which  it  is 
taken,  now  hanging  in  the  Old  State  House  of  Boston, 
is  a  reproduction  of  the  original  portrait  by  I.  Blackburn, 
to  whom  Mr.  Otis  sat  for  his  portrait  in  1755.  The 
original  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Rogers,  a  descendant  of 
James  Otis,  may  be  seen  at  her  residence,  No.  8  Otis 
Place,  Boston.  But  the  original  is  not  so  well  adapted 
as  is  the  copy  to  photographic  reproduction.  The  two 
portraits  are  identical  in  feature  and  character,  but  the 
original  having  a  light  backgroimd  offends  the  camera. 

THE   SOURCE   AND   OCCASION   OF   THE   WAR   OF   THE 

REVOLUTION. 

/ 

"The  question  is,perhaps  more  curious  than  profitable, 
that  relates  to  the  source  and  occasion  of  the  first  of 
that  series  of  events  which  produced  the  war  of  the 
Revolution.  Men  have  often  asked,  what  was  its  origi- 
nal cause,  and  who  struck  the  first  blow  ?  This  inquiry 
was  well  answered  by  President  Jefferson,  in  a  letter  to 


-.    JAMES  OTIS.  99 

Dr.  Waterhouse  of  Cambridge,  written  March  36,    1818. 

"'I  suppose  it  would  be  difficult  to  trace  our  Revolution 
to  its  first  embryo.  We  do  not  know  how  long  it  was 
hatching  in  the  British  cabinet,  before  they  ventured  to 
make  the  first  of  the  experiments  which  were  to  devel- 
op it  in  the  end,  and  to  produce  complete  parliamentary 
supremacy. 

'"Those  you  mention  in  Massachusetts  as  preceding 
the  Stamp-Act  might  be  the  first  visible  symptoms  of 
that  design.  The  proposition  of  that  Act,  in  1764,  was 
the  first  here.  Your  opposition,  therefore,  preceded 
ours,  as  occasion  was  sooner  given  there  than  here,  and 
the  truth,  I  suppose,  is,  that  the  opposition,  in  every 
colony,  began  whenever  the  encroachment  was  presented 
to  it. 

"'This  question  of  priority  is  as  the  inquiry  would  be, 
who  first  of  the  three  hundred  Spartans  offered  his  name 
to  Leonidas.  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  justice  done  to  the 
merits  of  all.'" 

^In  the  primitive  opposition  made  by  Otis  to  the  arbi- 
trary acts  of  Trade,  aided  by  the  Writs  of  Assistance,  he 
announced  two  maxims  which  lay  at  the  foundation  of 
all  the  subsequent  war;  one  was,  that  'taxation  without 
representation  was  tyranny,'  the  other,  'that  expendi- 
tures of  public  money  without  appropriations  by  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people,  were  arbitrary,  and  therefore 
unconstitutional.'" 

"This  early  and  acute  sagacity  of  our  statesman,  led 
Burke  finely  to  describe  the  political  feeling  in  America 
as  follows; 


loo 


JAMES  OTIS. 

Ulln  other  countries,  the  people,  more  simple,  of  a  less 
mercurial  cast,  judge  of  an  ill  principle  iii  government, 
only  by  an  actual  grievance;  here  they  anticipate  the 
evil,  and  judge  of  the  pressure  of  the  grievance,  by  the 
badness  of  the  principle. 

'"They  augur  misgovernment  at  a  distance;  and  snuff 
the  approach  of  tyranny  in  every  tainted  breeze." '  —E. 
L.  Magoon. 

/~\    STAMPS  AND  THE  STAMP  ACT. 

u 

During  Robert   Walpole's   administration    [1732],    a 
stamp  duty  was  proposed.     He  said    "I    will   leave   the 
taxation   of   America  to  some  of 
my   successors,    who   have   more 
courage  than  I  have." 

Sir  William  Keith,  governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  proposed  a  tax  in 
1739.  Franklin  thought  it  just, 
when  a  delegate  in  the  Colonial 
Congress  at  Albany,  in  1754. 
But  when  it  was  proposed  to  Pitt 
in  1759  the  great  English  states- 
man said:  "I  will  never  burn 
my  fingers  with  an  American  stamp  act." 

THE  STAMPS. 

The  stamps  were  upon  blue  paper,  and  were  to  be  at- 
tached to  every  piece  of  paper  or  parchment,  on  which  a 
legal  instrument  was  written.  For  these  stamps  the  Gov- 
ernment charged  specific  prices,  for  example,  for  a  com- 
mon property  deed,  one  shilling  and  sixpence. 


Stamp  used  under  the 
Stamp  Act. 


JAMES  OTIS.  101 

THE  MINUTE-MAN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

The  Minute-man  of  the  Revolution!  He  was  the  old, 
the  middle-aged,  and  the  young.  He  was  Capt.  Miles, 
of  Concord,  who  said  that  he  went  to  battle  as  he  went 
to  church.  He  was  Capt.  Davis,  of  Acton,  who  re- 
proved his  men  foe  jesting  on  the  march.  He  was 
Deacon  Josiah  Haynes,  of  Sudbury,  80  years  'old,  who 
marched  with  his  company  to  the  South  Bridge  at  Con- 
cord, then  joined  in  the  hot  pursuit  to  Lexington,  and 
fell  as  gloriously  as  Warren  at  .Bunker  Hill.  He  was 
James  Hay  ward,  of  Acton,  22  years  old,  foremost  in  that 
deadly  race  from  Concord  to  Charlestown,who  raised  his 
piece  at  the  same  moment  with  a  British  soldier,  each  ex- 
claiming, "You  are  a  dead  man!"  The  Briton  dropped, 
shot  through  the  heart. 

James  Hay  ward  fell  mortally  wounded.  "Father," 
he  said,  "I  started  with  forty  balls;  I  have  three  left.  I 
never  did  such  a  day's  work  before.  Tell  mother  not  to 
mourn  too  much,  and  tell  her  whom  I  love  more  than  my 
mother,  that  I  am  not  sorry  I  turned  out."  —  George  W. 
Curtis. 

THE  BOSTON  COMMON  SCHOOLS. 

The  Boston  Common  Schools  were  the  pride  of  the 
town.  They  were  most  jealously  guarded,  and  were 
opened  each  day  with  public  prayer. 

They  were  the  nurseries  of  a  true  democracy.  In 
them  the  men  who  played  the  most  important  part  in 
the  Revolutionary  period  received  their  early  education. 

The  Adamses,  Chancey,  Cooper,    Gushing,   Hancock, 


102  JAMES  OTIS. 

Mayhew,  Warren,  and  the   rest  breathed   their  bracing 
atmosphere. 

ENGLAND  AND  AMERICA. 

I  have  already  dwelt  on  the  significance  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  driven  out  of  England,  be- 
gin this  compact,  with  which  they  ;  begin  their  life  in 
this  new  world,  with  warm  professions  of  allegiance  to 
England's  King. 

Old  England,  whose  King  and  bishops  drove  them 
out,  is  proud  of  them  to-day,  and  counts  them  as  truly 
her  children  as  Shakespeare  and  Milton  and  Vane. 

As  the  American  walks  the  corridors  and  halls  of  the 
Parliament  House  at  Westminster,  he  pays  no  great  heed 
to  the  painted  kings  upon  the  painted  windows,  and 
cares  little  for  the  gilded  throne  in  the  gilded  House  of 
Lords.  The  Speaker's  chair,  in  the  Commons  does  not 
stir  him  most,  nor  the  white  form  of  Hampden  that 
stands  silent  at  the  door;  but  his  heart  beats  fastest 
where,  among  great  scenes  from  English  triumphs  of  the 
days  of  Puritanism  and  the  revolution,  he  sees  the  de- 
parture of  the  Pilgim  Fathers  to  found  New  England. 

England  will  not  let  that  scene  go  as  a  part  of  Amer- 
ican history  only,  but  claims  it  now  as  one  of  the  proud- 
est scenes  in  her  own  history,  too. 

It  is  a  bud  of  promise,  I  said,  when  I  first  saw  it  there. 
Shall  not  its  full  unfolding  be  some  great  reunion  of  the 
English  race,  a  prelude  to  the  federation  of  the  world? 

Let  that  picture  there  in  the  Parliament  House  at 
Westminster  stay  always  in  your  mind,  to  remind  you 
pf  the  England  in  you.  Let  the  picture  of  the  signing 


JAMES  OTIS.  103 

of  the  compact  on  the  "Mayflower"  stay  with  it,  to  remind 
you  of  progress  and  greater  freedom.  That,  I  take  it,  is 
what  America — New  England,  now  tempered  by  New 
Germany,  New  Ireland,  New  France — that,  I  take  it,  is 
what  America  stands  for. — Edwin  D.  Mead. 

THE  UNIVERSITIES  AND  THE  MEN  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

Yon  may  perhaps  remember  how  Wendell  Phillips,  in 
his  great  Harvard  address  on  "The  Scholar  and  the  Re- 
public" reproached  some  men  of  learning  for  their  con- 
servatism and  timidity,  their  backwardness  in  reform. 
And  it  is  true  that  conservatism  and  timidity  are  never 
so  hateful  and  harmful  as  in  the  scholar.  "Be  bold,  be 
bold,  and  evermore  be  bold,"  those  words  which  Emer- 
son liked  to  quote,  are  words  which  should  ever  ring  in 
the  scholar's  ear. 

But  you  must  remember  that  Roger  Williams  and  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  the  very  men  whom  Wendell  Phillips 
named  as  "two  men  deepest  in  thought  and  bravest  in 
speech  of  all  who  spoke  English  in  their  day,"  came,  the 
one  from  Cambridge,  the  other  from  Oxford;  and  that 
Sam  Adams  and  Jefferson,  the  two  men  whom  he  named 
as  preeminent,  in  the  early  days  of  the  republic,  for 
their  trust  in  the  people,  were  the  sons  of  Harvard  and 
William  and  Mary.  John  Adams  and  John  Hancock 
and  James  Otis  and  Joseph  Warren,  the  great  Boston 
leaders  in  the  Revolution,  were  all  Harvard  men,  like 
Samuel  Adams;  and  you  will  remember  how  many  of 
the  great  Virginians  were,  like  Jefferson,  sons  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary. 


104  JAMES  OTIS. 

And  never  was  a  revolution  so  completely  led  by 
scholars  as  the  great  Puritan  Revolution  which  planted 
New  England  and  established  the  English  common- 
wealth. 

No.     Scholars  have  often  enough  been  cowards   and 

trimmers. 

But  from  the  days  when  Moses,  learned  in  all  the 
wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  brought  his  people  up  out 
of  bondage,  and  Paul,  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Gama- 
liel, preached  Christ,  and  Wyclif  and  Luther  preached 
Reformation,  to  the  time  when  Eliot  and  Hampden  and 
Pym  and  Cromwell  and  Milton  and  Vane,  all  scholars  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  worked  for  English  common- 
wealth, to  the  time  of  Jefferson  and  Samuel  Adams  and 
the  time  of  Emerson  and  Sumner  and  Gladstone,  schol- 
ars have  been  leaders  and  heroes  too. — Edwin  D.  Mead. 

EARL  PERCY  AND  YANKEE  DOODLE. 

Earl  Percy  was  the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Northumber* 
land.  When  he  was  marching  out  of  Boston,  his  band 
struck  up  the  tune  of  Yankee  Doodle,  in  derision. 

He  saw  a  boy  in  Roxbury  making  himself  very  merry 
as  he  passed. 

Percy  inquired  why  he  was  so  merry. 

"To  think,"  said  the  lad,  "how  you  will  dance  by  and 
by  to  Chevy  Chase." 

Percy  was  much  influenced  by  presentiments,  and  the 
words  of  the  boy  made  him  moody.  Percy  was  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  Earl  Percy  who  was  slain  in  the  battle 
of  Chevy  Chase,  and  he  felt  all  day  as  if  some  great  cal- 
amity might  befall  him. 


>-  r- 

JAMES  OTIS.  (I  > 

SWRTOTJAMES  OTIS, 

FOR   A   .SCHOOL   OR   CLUB    PROGRAMME. 

Each  numbered  paragraph  is  to  be  given  to  a  pupil  or 
member  to  read,  or  to  recite  in  a  clear>  distinct  tone. 

If  the  school  or  club  is  small,  each  person  may  take 
three  or  four  paragraphs,  but  should  not  be  required  to 
recite  them  in  succession. 

1.  James  Otis  was  born  in  West  Barnstable,  near  the  center  of 
Massachusetts,  February  5,  1725. 

2.  *His  ancestors  were  oiJlnglisli  descejitj    The  founder  of  the 
family  in  America,  John  Otis,  came  from  Hingham,  in  Norfolk,  Eng- 
land, and  settled  in  Hingham,  Massachusetts,  in  the  year  1635. 


Alleyne  House,  Plymouth,  where  Otis's  Mother  was  born.    The  boat  marks 

the  spot  where  the  "Mayflower"  was  anchored. 

(From  "Tudor's  Life  of  James  Otis.") 

3.  His  grandson,  John   Otis,    was   born   in    1635.     He  removed 
from   Hingham  to   Barnstable,  where  he  became  a  prominent  man, 
and  held  several   important    positions.     For  eighteen   years  he  was 
Colonel  of  Militia,  for  twenty   years    Representative,   for  twenty-one 
years  member  of  the  Council,  for  thirteen  years  Chief  Justice  of  com- 
mon pleas,  and  Judge  of  Probate. 

4.  His  two  sons,  John  and  James,  became  distinguished  in  public 
life.     James,  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  an  eminent 


106  JAMES  OTIS. 


lawyer.     He,  like  his  father,  became  Colonel  of  Militia,  Chief  Justice 
of  common  pleas,  andJudge  of  ProbateJ_J^/ 

<7         ($•    James  OtiSjjAfe^SyTnheritance^enved  his  legal  bent  and 
i/      love  for  political  Iife7~^ 

6.  His  mother's  name  was  Mary  Allyne,  or  Alleyne,  of  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.,  daughter  of  Joseph  Allyne,  of  Plymouth.  She  was  con- 
nected with  the  founders  of  Plymouth  colony,  who  arrived  in  the 
Mayflower  in  1620. 

j.  James  was  the  oldest  of  thirteen  children,  several  of  whom 
died  in  infancy.  Others  lived  to  attain  distinction. 

8>     He  was  fitted  for  College  by  the  Rev.  Jonathan   Russell   of 
''  Barnstable,  and  was  so  industrious  in  his  studies  that  he  was  ready  in 
his  fifteenth  year  to  enter  as  a  freshman  at  Harvard  in  June,  1739. 

q.  There  is  grave  reason  for  believing  that  his  excessive  devo- 
tion to  study  at  this  early  period,  had  much  to  do  with  his  nervous 
and  excitable  condition  in  succeeding  years. 

10.  "Make  haste  slowly"  is  the  translation   of  a   Latin   motto, 
which  parents  and  teachers  ought  to  observe    in   the   education   of 
children. 

11.  Far  better  is   it  for  the  student  to  take  time  in  making  a 
thorough  preparation  for  the  great  work  of  life,  than  to  rush  through 
his  preparatory  course  at  the  great  risk  of  health   and  strength.     Let 
him  aim  ever  be  to  present  "a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body." 

±2.  James  Otis  was  graduated  from  college  in  1743,  after  com- 
pleting a  four  years  successful  course. 

(rj.,)  After  graduation  he  wisely  gave  nearly  two  years  to  the  pur- 
suits orgeneral  lit&rature^and  science  before  entering  upon  the  law. 

Pfr^t/  C7?~Xi^^^  f     , 

14;  in  this,  he  set  a  good  example  to  the  young  men  of  the  pres- 
ent day,  who  are  so  strongly  tempted  to  enter  at  once  upon  profes- 
sional life,  without  laying  a  broad  and  deep  foundation  for  future 
usefulness. 

15.  JaTTTejrOtis-was  veTy-iorrdT7f~Thgl)^s1rpnets,  and  "in  the  zeal- 
ous emuIatioiTotTrreTr-beauti^^ll-says JDr,  Magoon,  "he  energized  his 
spirit  and  power  of  expression. 

16.  "He  did  not  merely  read  over  the  finest  passages— he  pon- 
dered them— he  fused  them  into  his  own  soul,  and   reproduced  their 
charms  with  an  energy  all  his  own." 

17.  In    1745   he   entered  the  law  office  of  Jeremiah  Gridley,  in 
Boston,  who  was  then  one  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  in 'the 
country. 

1 8.  jiebegan  the  praj:tireoflaw  in  Plymouth,  in  1748, 
found  tTTaThe  was  "cabined7cfibbe3~aTrd-6oafined"  in-tlw 

to  rise  in  such  a  small  place. 

vigj  In  1750  he  removed  to  Boston,  and  there  finding  full  scope 
for  his  powers,  soon  rose  to  the  foremost  rank  in  his  profession, 


JAMES  OTIS.  107 

(2Cj)  He  justly  won  the  high  place  so  generally  accorded  him,  by 
his  learning,  his  integrity,  and  his  marvelous  eloquence. 

21.  In  acting  successfully  as  counsel  for  the  three  men  who  were 
accused  of  piracy  in  Halifax,  he  received  a  well  earned  fee,  which 
was  the  largest  that  had  ever  been  paid  to  a  Massachusetts  lawyer. 

(22)     L9ce  Jameij  A.  Garfitld-,  he  kept  up  a  lively  interest  in  clas-  , 
sicaFstudies  during  his  entire  professional  career. 


"  ^    . 


(23-,'  James  Otis  married  Miss  Ruth  Cunningham,  daughter  of  a  / 
BostjoiQ  merchant,  early  in  1755. 

24.  The  marriage  was  not  in  all  respects  a  happy  one,  partly  on 
account  of  political  differences.     While  he  became  an  ardent  patriot, 
she  remained  a  staunch  loyalist  until  her  death  on  Nov.  15,  1789. 

25.  Another    reason   for  the  want  of  complete  domestic  felicity 
was  the  peculiar  character  of  his  genius,  which,  so  often  glowing,  ex- 
citable  and   irregular,   must  have  frequently  demanded  a  home  for- 
bearance almost  miraculous. 

26.  The  elder  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  a  Captain  Brown  of 
the  British  army,  and  ended  her  days  in  England. 

27.  The  younger  daughter,  Mary,  married  Benjamin,  the  eldest 
son  of  the  distinguished  General  Lincoln. 

(2Jy  In  \j6i,  when  he  was  thirty-six  years  of  age,  his  great  politi-  . 
cal  career  "began,  by  his  determined  opposition  to  the  "Writs  of  As-  ' 
sistance." 

29.  He  said   with   an   eloquence  that   thrilled  every-heart,  "A 
man's  house  is  his  castle;  and  while  he  is  quiet,  he-ts~ras  well  guarded 
as  a  prince  in  his  Castle^    This  Writ,  if_it-»fatm1d  be  declared   legal, 
would  totally  annihilate  trris-jinvilege." 

30.  "I  am  determined 'to  sacrffree~£§tate,  ease,  health,  applause 
and  even  life,  tothe"sacred  calls  of  my  country   in   opposition   to   a 
kind  of  power<fne  exercise  of  which  cost  one  king  his  head  and  an- 
other his  throne." 

31.  In  1762  he  published  a  pamphlet  entitled,  "The   Rights  of 
the  Colonies  Vindicated,"  which  attracted  great  attention  in  England 
for  its-.finished  diction  and  masterly  arguments. 

M2l  In  this  production  he  firmly  took  the  unassailable  position, 
that  m  all  questions  relating  to  the  expenditure  of  public  money,  the 
rights  of  a  Colonial  Legislature  were  as  sacred  as  the  rights  of  the 
House  of  Commons. 

33.  Some  of  the  Parliamentary  leaders  in  England  spoke  of  the 
work  with  contempt.     Lord  Mansfield,  tjie  great  English  legal  lumin- 
ary,  who  had   carefully  read  it,  rebuked  them  for  their  attitude  to- 
wards it. 

34.  But  they  rejoined,  as  quoted  by  Bancroft.  "The  man  is  mad!" 
"What    then?"   answered    Mansfield.     "One   mad  man  often  makes 
many.     Massaniello  was  mad — nobody  doubted  it — yet  for  all  that  he 
overturned  the  government  of  Naples." 


io8  JAMES  OTIS. 

£g       X~» 

fa  [35-  )ln  June,  1765,  Mr.  Otis  proposed  the  calling  of  a  congress  of 

delegates  from  all  the  colonies  to  consider  the  Stamp  Act. 

A6J  In  that  famous  Congress  which  met  in  October,  1765,  in  New 
YorRTne  was  one  of  the  delegates,  and  was  appointed  on  the  commit- 
tee to  prepare  an  address  to  the  Commons  of  England. 

37.     In    1767  he  was  elected  Speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  As- 
•        sembly.      Governor  Bernard   took    a    decidedly    negative    position 
'  J     against  the  fiery  orator,  whom  he  feared  as  much  as  he  did  the  in- 
trepid-^Sam  Adams. 

(^    But  Bernard  could  not  put  a  padlock  upon  the  lips  of  Otis. 

1       When  the  king,  who  was  greatly  offended  at  the  Circular  Letter  to 

the  colonies,  which  requested  them  to  unite  in  measures  for  redress, 

demanded    of    Bernard   to   dismiss   the   Assembly   unless   it   should 

rescind  its  action,  Otis :ma'de~a~flanTtffg" speech? 

39.     His  adversaries  said,  "It  was  the  most  violent,  abusive  and 
treasonable  declaration  that  perhaps  was  ever  uttered." 
..   ^  (^oj  In  the  debate  which  ensued  upon  this  royal  order,  Otis  said: 
•'.J'Weare  asked  to  rescind,  are  we?    Let  Great   Britain   rescind   her 
'•-"'measures,  or  the  colonies  are  lost  to.her  forever." 

(V         fiT?)   Otis  carried  the  House  triumphantly  with  him,  and  it  refused 
\   \to  regcind  by  a  vote  of  ninety-two  to  seventeen. 

(42}  In  the  summer  of  1769  he  attacked  some  of  the  revenue  offi- 
cersMn  an  article  in  "The  Boston  Gazette."  A  few  evenings  after- 
wards, while  sitting  in  the  British  coffee-house  in  Boston,  he  was  sav- 
agely assaulted  by  a  man  named  Robinson,  who  struck  him  on  the 
head  with  a  heavy  cane  or  sword. 

f43J  The  severe  wound  which  was  produced  so  greatly  aggrava- 
y  ted  rht:  mental  disease  which  had  before  been  somewhat  apparent, 
that  his  reason  rapidly  forsook  him. 

44.  Otis  obtained  a  judgment  of  £2,000  against  Robinson  for  the 
attack,  but  when  the  penitent  officer  made  a  written  apology  for  his 
irreparable  offence,  the  sufferer  refused  to  take  a  penny. 

faV   In  1771  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  and  sometimes  af- 
ry  tervvtfrd  appeared  in  court  and  in  the  town  meeting,  but  found  him- 
selHinabLe  to  take  part  in  public  business. 

(  46.  In  June,  1775,  while  living  in  a  state  of  harmless  insanity 
witVhis  sister,  Mercy  Warren,  at  Watertown,  Mass.,  he  heard,  ac- 
cording to  Appleton's  "Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography,"  the  rumor 
of  battle.  On  the  i7th  he  slipped  away  unobserved,  "borrowed  a 
musket  from  some  farmhouse  by  the  roadside,  and  joined  the  minute 
men  whc^were  marching  to  the  aid  of  the  troops  on  Bunker  Hill." 


J47J-'"He  took  an  active  part  in  that  battle),  and  after  it  was  over 
/       made  his  way  home  again  after  midnight."       ' 

The  last  years  of  his  life    were   spent   at   the   residence  of 


.     JAMES  OTIS.  IOQ 

Mr.  Osgood  in  Andover.  For  a- brief- season  it  seemed  as  though  his 
reason  was  restored, — He  even  undertook  a  case  in  the  Conrt  of 
Common  Pleas  in  Boston,  but  found  himself  unequal  to  the  exertion 
demanded  of  him. 

49.  He  had  been  persuaded  to  dine  with  Governor  Hancock  and 
some  other  friends.     "But  the  presence  of  his  former  friends  and  the 
revived  memories  of  previous  events,  gave  a  great  shock  to  his  brok- 
en mind."     He  was  persuaded  to  go  back  at  once  to  the  residence  of 
Mr.  Osgood. 

50.  After  his  mind  had  become  unsettled  he  said  to  Mrs.  War- 
ten,  "My  dear  sister,  I  hope,  when  God   Almighty   in   his  righteous 
providence  shall  take  me  out  of  time  into  eternity,  that  it   will  be  by 
a  flash  of  lightning,"  and  this  wish  he  often  reeeated. 

51.  Six  -weeks  c\actiy~after  ire  Teturn^on  May  23,  1783,  while 
standing  in  the  side  doorway  during  a  thunder-shower,  with  his  cane  in 
his  hand,  and  telling  the  assembled  family  a  story,  he  was  struck  by 
lightning  and  instantly  killedJ    Not  one  of  the  seven  or  eight  persons 
in  the  room  was  injured,    "^o  mark  of  any  kind  could  be  found  on 
Otis,   nor  was   there   the  slightest  change  or  convulsion  on  his  fea- 
tures." 

52.  His  remains  were  brought  to  Boston   and   interred   in   the 
Granary  Burying  Ground  with  every  mark  of  respect,  a  great  number 
of  the  citizens  attending  his  funeral. 

53.  James  Otis  sowed  the  seeds   of   liberty   in   this   new   world 
without  living  to  see  the  harvest,  and  probably  without  ever  dream- 
ing what  magnificent  crops  woald  be  produced. 

54.  When  the  usurpations  of  un-English  parliamentarians  and 
their  allies  at  home,  became  as  burdensome,  as  they  were  unjust,  he 
defended  his  countrymen,  in  whose  veins  flowed  the  best  of  English 
blood,   with   an  eloquence  whose  ultimate  influence  transcended  his 
own  sublime  aspirations. 

55.  He  taught,  in  the  ominous  words,  which  King  James's  first 
House   of   Commons  addressed  to  the  House  of  Lords,  immediately 
after  the  monarch  had  been  lecturing  them  on  his  own  prerogative, 
that  "There  may  be  a  people  without  a  king,  but  there  can  be  no  king 

without  a  people. '  ] 
I 

56.  "Fortunately   for   civil  liberty  in  England  and  America,  in 

all  countries  and  in  all  times,"  as  Edward  Everett  Hale  says,  "none 
of  the  Stuarts  ever  learned  in  time  what  this  ominous  sentence  means 
— not  James  I,  the  most  foolish  of  them;  nor  Charles  I,  the  most 
false;  nor  Charles  II,  the  most  worthless;  nor  James  II,  the  most  ob- 
stinate." 

57.  It  could  be  said  of  Otis  as  Coleridge  said  of -O'Connell,  "See 
how  triumphant  in  debate  and  action  he  is.     And  why?    Because  he 
asserts  a  broad  principle,  acts  up  to  it,  rests  his  body  upon  it,  and  has 
faith  in  it."* 


IIO  ,  JAMES  OTIS. 

PROGRAMME  FOR  A  JAMES  OTIS  EVENING. 

1.  Instrumental  Music. 

2.  Vocal  Music— "Remember  the  Maine." 

3.  Essay— "The   True   Relation  of  England  as  a  Nation  to  the 
Colonies." 

4.  Vocal  or  Instrumental  Music. 

5.  Essay— "Writs  of  Assistance,  and  Otis'  Relation  to  Them." 

6.  Music. 

7.  A   Stereopticon   Lecture,   illustrating  the  Famous  Buildings 
and   noted   features   of   Boston— The   Old    North    Church,   The  Old 
South,  Copp's  Hill,  Bunker  Hill,  North  Square,   House  of   Paul   Re- 
vere, Site  of  the   Old   Dragon   Inn,  The  Old  State  House,  Faneiul 
Hall,  etc. 

8.  Singing — "America." 


QUESTIONS  FOR  REVIEW. 

Where  is  the  Granary  Burying  Ground?  Why  so  named?  What 
distinguishes  it?  Can  you  give  the  navies  of  some  eminent  persons 
buried  there?  In  what  tomb' was  James  Otis  interred?  II  'hat  inter- 
esting particular  was  noted  when  his  body  was  disinterred ' .' 

What  names  are  given  to  the  fire-revolutionists,  the  revolution- 
ists, and  the  post-revolutionists  ? 

Who  is  assigned  the  first  place  among  the  protagonists  of  free- 
dom? Who  the'second?  What  is  the  remarkable  thing  about  the  lives 
of  many  great  men  ?  Will  you  expand  the  thought? 

When  and  where  was  James  Otis  born  ?  What  offices  did  he  fill? 
When  was  James  Otis,  Jr.,  born?  What  did  he  inherit  from  his 
father  and  grandfather?  What  were  transmitted  to  other  members  of 
the  family?  Give  the  name  of  one  of  these  members  and  her  peculiar 
gifts.  What  was  the  name  of  one  of  the  brothers,  and  what  is  said  of 
him  ? 

By  whom  was  James  Otis  prepared  for  College  ?  When  did  he 
enter  College?  What  is  the  tradition  concerning  him?  What  is  snid 
of  his  College  course?  What  of  his  excitable  tonperament?  What  an- 
ecdote is  recorded  of  him?  When,  andunder  what  distinguished  lawyer 
did  he  begin  his  legal  studies  ?  What  is  said  of  his  preceptor? 

When  and  where  did  he  begin  to  practice  law?  What  are  some 
of  the  incidents  of  his  early  legal  career?  What  is  said  of  the  defense 
by  Otis  of  citizens  in  connection  with  the  anniversary  of  the  Gunpow- 
der Plot?  What  is  the  History  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot%.  When  was 
the  first  period  of  his  Boston  practice?  W  hat  is  said  of  the  non-pres- 
ervation of  the  legal  pleas  and  addresses  of  James  Otis?  What  does 
tradition  say  of  him  as  an  orator? 

When  and  whom  did  Otis  marry?  What  is  said  of  the  Cunning- 
ham family?  What  is  said  of  Mrs.  Otis?  Who  comprised,  the  faini- 


JAMES  OTIS.  in 

lyofMr.  and  Mrs.  Otis?  What  is  said  of  the  marriage  of  the  elder 
daughter?  What  of  the  younger  daughter? 

When  was  the  second  period  in  James  Otis  s  life"?  What  is  said 
of  him  as  a  rising  man  ?  What  is  said  of  his  scholastic  and  literary 
pursuits,  etc.?  What  works  did  Jie  compose?  What  did  James  Otis 
say  about  the  bad  literary  tastes  of  the  boys  of  his  time? 

Of  what  is  every  man  the  joint  product?  \\That  were  the  condi- 
tions under  which  the  colonial  settlements  were  formed?  What  were 
the  feelings  of  the  colonists  towards  England 7 

What  specific  conditions  in  the  development  of  the  colonies  may 
be  noted?  What  were  the  immediate  and  forceful  causes  towards 
revolution?  ll'/iat  is  said  of  the  Navigation  Act?  of  the  Importation 
Act?  What  kind  of  a  question  was  that  at  issue?  Why? 

M'hat  is  said  of  the  seaboard  towns  ?  of  the  traffic  with  the  West 
Indies?  IVhat  period  did  the  epoch  of  evasion  cover?  \Vhat  is  said 
of  the  iron  and  steel  industry?  of  ship  building? 

What  did  Hutchinson  say  of  his  own  appointment?  What  were 
some  of  the  personal  forces  at  work  ?  What  is  said  of  Hutchinson  and 
others?  What  slander  of  James  Otis  was  current?  In  what  language 
was  the  case  regarding  the  Writs  of  Assistance  made  up?  What  is 
said  of  the  trial  of  the  case?  l\rho  was  one  of  the  eminent  spectators? 
What  was  the  relation  of  Otis  to  it? 

What  did  Chief  Justice  Hutchinson  advise  in  the  case  of '  the  Writs 
of  Assistance?  What  is  the  story  narrated  of  Otis  regarding  his  want 
of  self-control? 

What  is  said  of  the  controversy  between  Hutchinson  and  Otis  ? 
What  resolution  did  Otis  offer  in  1762?  What  is  said  of  his  pamphlet 
on  "The  Vindication  of  the  Conduct  of  the  House  of  Representatives," 
etc.?  What  is  said  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris?  What  of  the  feelings  of 
Americans  towards  the  mother  country  ?  What  of  the  utterances  of  Otis  / 

What  did  the  Americans  claim  ?  What  was  the  reply  of  Parlia- 
ment? What  is  said  of  the  Sugar  Act?  What  of  Otis  relations  to 
Lieut. -Governor  Hutchinson?  Of  his  relations  to  the  Sugar  Act 
and  Stamp  Act?  Of  his  relation  to  an  Intercolonial  conference? 
\\'/iat  was  Franklin  s  opinion  of  this  conference?  What  is  the  sub- 
stance of  Mr.  Otis  letter  to  the  provincial  agent?  Of  Lord  Mans- 
field's view  of  it? 

SUBJECTS  FOR  SPECIAL  STUDY. 

/.  The  French  and  Indian  War. 

2.  James  Otis  as  an  Orator. 

j.  The  English  Colonies  in  America. 

y.  The^  Influence  of  College  Men  in  Public  Life, 

j.  How  the  American  Colonies  Grew  Together. 

6.  The  Commercial  Causes  of  the  Revolution. 

7.  The  Political  Causes  of  the  Revolution. 

8.  Otis  Compared  with  Samuel  Adams. 
Q.  The  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 


ii2  JAMES  OTIS. 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  JAMES  OTIS. 

1725  Born  in  West  Barnstable,  Massachusetts,  Feb.  5.  -. 

1739  Entered  Harvard  College,  June.  eJe^^^s 

1743  Was  graduated  from  Harvard.     -^— " 

1745  Begins  the  study  of  law.  * 

1748  Begins  the  practice  of  law  at  Plymouth,  Massachusetts. 

1750  Removes  to  Boston. 

1755  Marries  Miss  Ruth  Cunningham. 

1760  Publishes  "Rudiments  of  Latin  Prosody." 

1761  Opposes  the  "Writs  oJLAssista-nee.'' 

1762  Publishes  "The  Rights  of  the  Colonies  Vindicated." 

1765     Moves  resolution  for  Congress  of  Delegates  to  consider  "The 

Stamp  Act,"     June. 

Attends  the  Congress  called  to  consider  "The  Stamp  Act"  in 
New  York,  and  appointed  on  the  committee  to  prepare  ad- 
dress to  Parliament,  October. 

1767     Elected  Speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  Assembly.    .       i  t  . 

1769    Attacked  and  severely  injured  by  Robinson.  /^ 

1771     Elected  to  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts. 

1775     Participates  in  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  June  17. 

1778     Pleads  case  before  court  in  Boston. 

1783     Killed  by  stroke  of  lightning  at  Andover,  Mass.,  May  23. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

For  those  who  wish  to  read  extensively,  the  following  works  are 

especially  commended: 

Library   of   American    Biography.     Jared    Sparks.     Vol.  2.     Boston 
Charles  C.  Little  and  James  Brown.     1846. 

Life  of  James  Otis.     By  William  Tudor. 

Orators  of  the  American  Revolution.     E.  L.  Magoon. 

"Otis  Papers."     In  Collection  of   Massachusetts    Historical    Society, 
Boston,  1897. 

"Life  of  James  Otis."      By  Francis  Bowen,  in   Sparks'   American  Bi- 
ography.   Vol.  XII     Boston.     1846. 
— Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography.    D.  Appleton  &  Co.    New  York. 

American  Law  Register.     Vol.  3,  page  641. 

North  American  Review.    Vol.  16,  page  337.    J.  C.Gray. 

"The  Old  South  Leaflets,"  prepared  by  Edwin  1).  Mead.    I).  C.  Heath 
&  Co.,  Boston,  Publishers. 

DeToqueville's  Democracy  in  America.     Works  of  John  Fiske.    Rid- 
path's  History  of  the  United  States.     Ellis'  History  of  the  United 


States. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


,URfl 
UN  NOV  1  5  1973 


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i™    MAR  2  7  1974 


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